


Carry on Wayward son

by Bluebird2479



Series: Sweet Child O’mine [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), captain america movies
Genre: Alternate Universe, Multi, Multiverse, Really weird head cannon, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve born in 21st century, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time Travel, Tony Stark Deserves A Hug, Tony Stark Feels, Trans Steve Rogers, bad explanation of time travel, it will make sense, steve Rogers is Tony’s son, steve stark - Freeform, steve travels back in time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-06-24 19:31:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19730332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluebird2479/pseuds/Bluebird2479
Summary: Genius ,billionaire, playboy , philanthropist...this was the Tony Stark that the world knew. But there was a side to tony that no one knew about, a secret life that no one could have guessed.Tony had been 17 and had just graduated MIT when he met Sarah Rogers. By 18, their son was born and the two of them were secretly married. Tony kept his family hidden from the spotlight, spending a peaceful and happy time with them whenever he could.But his perfect life came crashing down when he lost both his wife and son in a gas explosion at there house.Two years later, he was kidnapped in Afghanistan and then, iron man happened. He once again found a purpose, found love and a reason to live.Captain America is found, and tony is called to SHIELD. After all, it was Howard starks life mission to find America’s hero.Tony thought he couldn’t be surprised anymore.Except, the unconscious man in the star spangled uniform was his son.





	1. What is and what should never be

**Author's Note:**

> I know it’s very confusing and not at all possible. I’m pretty sure time laws don’t work that way. 
> 
> I ship Stony big time, and I’m working on a different series where they are together. writing this is kinda weird, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. So I’m creating two different universes(yay)

. 

* * *

He followed the agent to the room, not really sure what to expect. 

When he saw the man on the bed, he almost crumbled in shock. 

It wasn’t possible. This couldn’t be real.

Except, Tony would know that face anywhere. He was older, and no longer small and frail, but tall and muscular. But it didn’t change the fact that the unconscious man on the bed was his son.

* * *

Tony had graduated MIT top of his class at 16. It would be a while before he would have to take over the company and Tony honestly wasn’t interested in it to begin with.

With nothing left to do, he decided to simply travel , have fun and annoy his father as much as he could. 

Every other day, the tabloids were overrun with pictures of Tony partying and spending his nights with different girls. He was caught drinking underage and even went to jail and his father had to bail him out. 

Tony didn’t think his life could change much after that. Until he met her. 

Sarah Rogers was a 5”2 blonde, skinny girl with an extra two feet of pigheadedness. 

The first time Tony met her was in a dark alley in Brooklyn at midnight, where she was fighting, or attempting to fight off, a thief who had stolen an old mans wallet. 

The man easily outweighed her, and could block her punches without even trying. But the sheer determination on her face was what Attracted Tony to her in the first place 

“Back off girl. You won’t survive another punch.” The thief sneered

”What? You getting tired?” She snarked, wheezing slightly

Tony stepped in (with his bodyguard of course) and the thief was handed to the police and the old mans wallet had been returned. 

“Thanks.” She said, seemingly not perturbed by who he was

”You really don’t know when to quit do you?” Tony remarked

She frowned “If you quit once, you’ll only get used to it. Not me” she said firmly and started walking away.

Tony had stared at her retreating figure for a few seconds before he made up his mind

”Wait! It’s quite late. Let me drop you” He said, catching up with her.

“I can go by myself. My apartments not that far.” She said 

“Still, I’ll feel better knowing you reached home safe. Besides, you’re hurt.” He said pointing to the nasty bruise that was forming on her face and her bloody knuckles 

“I can still walk” she said

A few more minutes of arguing later, tony had convinced her to let him drop her.

“You never told me your name?” Tony said as they got into the car

”You never asked” she replied smiling cheekily. If Tony hadn’t been completely done already, that smile did the job. 

He was well and truly fucked up.

”Sarah” she said finally, extending a hand for him to shake “Sarah Rogers.” 

Tony shook her hand and flashed her his most confident smile

”You know who I am.” 

“I don’t, actually.” She said, cocking her head in confusion 

Tony blinked at her for a second, not sure how to respond to that, until he saw the smile tugging at the corner of her lips 

“Okay, you got me.” He said, laughing along with her. She had an adorable laugh.

For a complete stranger, Tony found out that Sarah was surprisingly easy to talk to. Throughout the twenty minute ride to her house, tony found out a lot about her. 

She was from Ireland, and came to live with her uncle after her parents died in an accident. She had gotten emancipated a couple of months ago and now lived alone in an apartment.

She was only 17, like Tony, and had just graduated high school.

She was an artist, a talented one at that, and had already been asked to showcase her work in a couple of galleries. 

Tony felt himself grow comfortable around her and it was scary how easily he let go. In a matter of minutes, the girl had him wrapped around her finger.

Too soon, her apartment arrived and she had to leave.

”Thanks for the ride.” She said, before opening the door to leave. 

Tony wanted to say something, ask her number or whatever, but he couldn’t. Seriously? Since when was he shy around girls.

He was saved the internal turmoil when Sarah turned around, just before she closed the door.

“You know, I was thinking about going to central park tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve been there and I’ve been meaning to sketch Bethesda fountain. I got it wrong the last time” she said the last part with a frown

”Oh” Tony managed to say. Oh god! What was wrong with him. 

“So...I’ll probably be there by 12:30 pm or something.” She said with a wink and she closed the door with a final wave and walked towards her building. 

“Wait” Tony called out from the window “Are you asking me out on a date? Just to be sure.” He said

”Aren’t you supposed to be a playboy or something?” Sarah asked “Just be there Tony.”

“Okay...yeah I’ll be there. 12:30 ...perfect...see you tomorrow then.” He blabbered

Sarah shook her head and walked inside her building.

Tony couldn’t sleep that night. He was exited and nervous at the same time. This would be the first time he ever went on a real date. Well, one where he actually hoped could lead to a second date as well. And a third . And a fourth. And a...well you get the point.

He really didn’t want to mess this up. 

The next day, he was up early and had reached Bethesda fountain by 11:50. Resigning himself to a long wait, Tony sat on the edge of the fountain, checking his pager for any messages. Except, he didn’t have to wait that long because she was already there.

”You’re here early.” Sarah remarked in lieu of greeting

”So are you.” Tony pointed out

she smiled “C’mon. There’s this Churro stand I saw on my way here. I don’t know about you but I’m starving.” She said , and without waiting for his answer, she dragged him towards the stand.

Before he could object, she bought two churros for both of them and brought them back to where he was standing

”They’re amazing!” She exclaimed, handing him his churro 

Tony watched her sketch for a couple of hours. She really was talented. Tony didn’t know anything about art but he could tell Sarah had real potential.

After that, Tony took her to lunch in a small cafe nearby (her idea) and then, the two of them went to the lake in Central Park.

”I used to come here with my grandma. She would tell me all about how New York was before.” Sarah said

”You mean before the Hydra bombing during world war 2?” 

She nodded

”Did you know Central Park was three times as big as this? And you could go boating in the lake and stuff cause the water wasn’t toxic.” 

Tony looked at the fence around the lake, preventing people from entering or standing working 5 feet from the water which still had toxic residue because of the missiles launched from the Valkyrie.

”You know, my father used to tell me a story about this super soldier. Back in the 40 s, a scientist called Erskine had developed a serum that would give a person enhanced abilities.” Tony started. He looked at Sarah, expecting her to be bored or irritated with his history lesson. Instead she nodded at him to continue 

“Well this serum was still untested you see. Only one person had used this before and that guy became Red Skull.”

”The Hydra leader?” She asked

Tony nodded

”Erskine fled from Germany and came to America, wanting to help us take down the Nazi’s. He modified the serum and a man from the military was chosen. This guy, Hodge was one of the best officers they had. But the serum had a catch, it didn’t just enhance your abilities. Good became great, and bad became worse. “

”Hodge was physically strong and brave, but he was also selfish, vain and power hungry. So when the serum was given to him, it had seemingly worked at first, but he got increasingly out of hand with his behavior.”

”Unfortunately, Dr. Erskine was killed before he could tell anyone the formula for the serum and Hodge was the only one who had it.”

”Of all the horrible things Hodge had done, the massacre of the 107th was probably the worst. See, more than a hundred soldiers from the 107th regiment were captured at a hydra base. And Schmidt, that’s Red skull, and his top scientist Zola were also there. Hodge had forced my dad to fly him behind the enemy lines under the rise that he would rescue the prisoners. Except, what he really wanted was to kill red skull and get hold of his weapons. So he blew up the entire base with the 107th still in it. Schmidt and Zola escaped, the soldiers didn’t.” This incident turned his father bitter and paranoid for the rest of his life.

“Hodge was declared compromised after that and shoot at sight orders were issued. He died trying to take on red skull alone but he was no match for his weapons. My dad believed Hodge had been looking for a power source that red skull had.”

”What power source?” Sarah asked

”I don’t know. My dad spent all his time looking for it. All I know is that in the end, that power source ended up vaporizing red skull himself. But the bombing still happened and hydra formed new leaders and here we are, fearing the next attack from them.” Tony said

”I wish there was something I could do to help. Innocent people are dying everyday because of these maniacs. It’s not fair I should sit in the sidelines and watch.” 

“What would you do?” Tony asked

”I don’t know. I just don’t like bullies.” She said 

“A lot of people think Hydra was destroyed with red skull. The government has convinced a lot of people that they’re just a ghost story.”

Sarah frowned “I don’t believe that. The government is being stupid. All those disappearances and unexplained murders, that has Hydra written all over it. Do you think they’re a ghost story.” 

Tony shook his head “My father is constantly paranoid about hydra. He believes his involvement in the war makes our family a target, though he wouldn’t specify why.”

”A target.” Sarah asked, her eyes wide

”Does that scare you?” Tony asked, tony asked a little nervously 

Sarah’s eyes shone with determination “No. I’m not scared of them.”

They say in silence for a few moments, each lost in their thoughts.

”Where are you Gonna be tomorrow?” Tony asked her, as they watched the sun set over the lake

she smirked at him

”Are _you_ gonna ask me out on a date this time.”

”I don’t know. I generally don’t go on a second date without at least a kiss first.” Tony said smirking back at her

”Was today a date?” She asked raising her eyebrow

”You tell me.” Tony shot back

She didn’t say anything. Instead, she leaned forward and kissed him, short and sweet. As she pulled back, Tony leaned forward and brought their lips together again, deepening the kiss. She gave a surprised gasp before kissing him back.

They pulled back at the same time a few seconds later.

”I’m busy tomorrow. I work part time at a studio giving art classes to kids.” She said 

“When does your shift end? I’ll come and pick you up.”

”Where will we go?”

”Surprise.”

Tony took her to play paintball. That day, he discovered just how cunning she was as she attacked him and hid. By the end , he was covered in paint and she was barely splattered at all, that is until he tackled her in a bear hug from behind.

They kissed again that day before he dropped her off.

Soon it became a regular thing. They were dating for months and Sarah still managed to surprise Tony.

He was completely in love with her.

Six months after he met Sarah, two things happened that would change his life forever. 

He got a call from Obadiah telling him of his parents death. It had been an stack by Hydra. As angry as he was at his dad, the knowledge that he was dead still crushed him. And his mother....

If it hadn’t been for Sarah and Rhodey, he probably would’ve spent the entire time at the bottom of a bottle.

Rhodey didn’t know about Sarah though. They had agreed to keep there relationship a secret as Tony was too famous and that put a target at his head.

If Hydra found out about them, they would surely hurt Sarah to hurt Tony. 

Which brings him to the second big news.

A month after his parents death, Sarah had called him to tell him they needed to talk.

Tony had honestly been expecting her to dump him. They all leave him in the end after all. A lot of people couldn’t put up with Tony. His tendency to overwork whenever he had some crazy idea or his inability to take things seriously and his stubbornness always drove people away. 

But Sarah was even more stubborn than he was and he thought that would make her stick around. Apparently not. 

So he went to her apartment, fully preparing himself to have his heart broken.

What he was not expecting was a nervous Sarah telling him she had news for him

”But I’m not sure if it’s good or bad.” She said 

“What are you talking about?” He asked

”I wanted to tell you before but with everything that happened, your parents....it just didn’t seen like the right time.” She said, fidgeting with her shirt sleeve

Tony had never seen her this nervous.

”hey...whatever it is, you can tell me okay?” He assured her 

He prepared himself for the ‘I’m sorry but I can’t do this anymore ‘ or the ‘ it’s not you it me’ speech 

“I’m pregnant Tony.” 

There it was .... wait what? WHAT!!?

His expression must not have been so reassuring because Sarah burst into tears. That snapped him out of his shock pretty fast and he was taking her into his arms, hugging her tightly 

“Hey...ssh. It’s okay, I’m not mad. We’ll figure this out, okay? Together. Whatever your decision is, I'm not letting you go through this alone.” He said

“Really?” She asked, pulling back to look at his face

”Yes. I love you Sarah Rogers. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” That was the first time he’d ever said that, and he wasn’t surprised by how easy it was to say it.

Besides, if it made her smile like that every time, then he’d say it a thousand times every day.

”I love you Shell head.” She said 

“Why do you call me that” he asked 

“Because as smart as you are, you can be so thickheaded sometime.” She said

”Not true” tony murmured

”You thought I was gonna dump you didn’t ya?” She asked, raising her eyebrow

”Point taken”

”You’re stuck with me too shellhead. For as long as I’m alive.” 

Tony kissed her, long and hard. Things escalated pretty quickly after that.

”I want to have this baby.” She said, as they were lying on her bed.

”Are you sure?” Tony asked

”Yes” she said firmly “ I mean, I know we’re only 17 but it just feels right. It’s going to be hard but I want this. What about you?” 

Honestly, Tony had no idea. He had always wanted kids. He loved children and was quite good with them. But at the same time, he was worried he would be just like his father.

He looked at Sarah. At the trust and love and hope so clearly reflected in her eyes and he made up his mind

”I want to have this baby too.” He said 

Her answering smile was blinding.

The next few months were long and hard, but Tony wouldn’t trade them for the world. 

The first thing they had agreed upon was that Sarah’s one bedroom apartment would be too small once the baby arrives. Tony wanted to buy or build her the best house he could but Sarah was having none of it.

”What happened to keeping this a secret?” She asked, after all her other arguments failed 

“I can’t keep you a secret forever.” Tony protested 

“We decided to keep our relationship a secret because it was dangerous. Now that there is a child in the picture that ruse is even more important. Think about what Hydra would do if they found out about your kid?” She reasoned 

“What’s that got to do with me buying you a house?”

”Anyone would find it suspicious if a pregnant teenage orphan could afford a penthouse or a condo.” She said

Tony had no choice but to give in after that.

Sarah used her college savings and the money she got from selling her paintings to buy a small land in the outskirts of the city and built a little cabin on it.

She was still painting, but after a while she could no longer go to work. Tony had spent many days assuring her that letting him take care of her and pay for her expenses was nothing to worry about.

Tony had been sure it was going to be a boy, while Sarah insisted it was a girl. At first, Tony was proven wrong. But it would be five years into the future when he would be proven right

——————————-——————

They had gotten their first scare six months into her pregnancy when Sarah woke up with an excruciating pain in her stomach. Tony had been away at that time and while he rushed back to her as soon as he found out, she still had to go through the whole thing alone.

The baby had a weak heartbeat, according to her reports. And with the way her pregnancy was going, she had risks of going into premature labor.

”Radiation poisoning. Apparently, babies all over the country are being affected by this. It was in the news today too. The live birth rate has plummeted.” Sarah told him.

Her voice had been impassive, but Tony could see the trepidation in her eyes. The fear of losing their baby was all too real.

Tony refused to leave her side after that. 

But their child was probably eager to meet their parents because a month and a half later, Sarah went into labor.

The little baby was born six weeks early with a weak heart and weighed less than 5 pounds and 8 ounces. Their child was put into an incubator and it was ten days before the young parents could hold their baby. Ten harrowing days of not knowing whether their baby would survive. 

“She’s beautiful,” Tony muttered as he finally held his daughter 

”She is. She looks like you.” Sarah said 

“She looks nothing like me. She’s got you’re hair and you’re eyes.” Tony said. Although ,he wasn’t complaining. Sarah had beautiful eyes and now, his baby had them too. 

Sarah hummed in response and took the baby from Tony’s arms.

”She definitely has your lips.” She said

”Marry me.” 

“What.” Sarah asked, startled 

“You heard me.” 

Sarah still looked shocked. So Tony pulled out the ring box from his pocket. He opened it and showed her the two rings he had made.

”I made these myself a few weeks ago. This metal, it’s called vibranium and it’s the rarest metal on earth. My dad had a piece of it, during the war which he used to make some weapons. This was all that was left. This metal can absorb and reflect energy, making it almost impossible to break. I wanted to give you the best. But no amount of money could’ve bought what you deserve. So I did this instead.” 

Sarah stared at the wedding bands. They looked like simple silver colored bands, but on closer look, she saw the intricate detail in them. Tony had put a lot of love and care into them.

”Yes.” She said a little breathlessly

”Huh?” 

“Yes I will marry you shellhead.” 

“Really?”

”Yes!” Sarah said again and Tony was kissing her, careful of the baby still in her arms.

* * *

Tony and Sarah had gotten married a month after their baby was born. The ceremony was small, and Rhodey, who Tony finally introduced to Sarah and Stephanie, was their officiant.

The next few years were the happiest in Tony’s life. He withdrew from public life and spent most of his time with his family.

They were still a secret and Rhodey was the only person who knew about his family. He soon became a constant member of their family. Steph absolutely loved her ‘unca Rhodey’. 

It was when their kid was five years old that she surprised them for the first time.

”I feel like I should be less like mommy and more like you daddy.” She told Tony one day 

“you mean you want brown hair?”Tony had asked, confused 

Sarah on the other hand, frowned at Steph curiously 

“No daddy. I mean I should be a boy like you.” She said

Tony looked at Sarah, not quite sure how to handle this

“Why do you feel that way baby?” Sarah gently asked

”I don’t know. It just feels right.”

After a few discussions between the parents and hours spent researching gender dysphoria, Tony and Sarah decided a trip to the psychiatrist would be their best option.

Tony found a doctor who was known for his work in building a positive attitude towards transgender’s and was a notable lgbt activist .

Tony couldn’t go, so Rhodey went with Sarah instead.

When they came back a couple of hour later, Tony barely waited till they were inside before bombarding Sarah with questions.

”Rhodey had some work so he dropped us here and left. He’ll come back to visit in the evening.”

”Okay.. whatever..now what did Dr. Elliot say?”

”He said that gender dysphoria is unpredictable in kids. There’s a huge chance they may grow out of it. But with st- with our child, it’s a little different.” She said

”Different how?” 

“Well, Steph wants us to call her a he. In fact, while we were introducing our selves to the doctor, s- he told them his name is Steve.”

”Are you saying we should go along with it. What if s-he- she...changes he- his mind.” Tony said, struggling slightly 

“The doctor said that if he changes his mind, then he will. But for now, he’s a boy and we can’t change that. Are you okay with this?” She asked , her look making it clear that the wrong answer would leave him in a bad situation.

”Will the medication affect his asthma?” Tony asked, surprised at how simple it was to accept it

”Uh..no. He won’t need medication yet. The doctor said it would be unwise to rush into, wait till he’s 18 or 21.” She looked a little surprised at his reaction 

“Okay. Where is h... where did he go?” Tony asked, looking around for his daugh- no, his son.

his son.

A warmth spread through Tony and he couldn’t help but smile

”He’s in his room.” Sarah said 

Tony nodded before walking that.

”I was right by the way.” He said “All those years ago, I was right.”

Sarah immediately understood what he was saying and chuckled

”Yes Tony. You were right. We have a baby boy.”

”Yes! She admits it. God I should’ve recorded that. You admitted you were wrong. Man it’s good to be right.” Tony exclaimed 

She rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him.

“Hey Piccolo. Mind if I come in?” Tony asked, knocking the door

"Yeah” came a small voice

Inside, Tony found him sitting in front of the mirror, trying to cut his hair.

”Hey now. What did your mother tell you about sharp objects. Give me those scissors Steve.”

Steve quickly gave the scissors to Tony, who didn’t miss the bright smile on his face. 

He would do anything to keep him smiling like that.

Tony took the scissors and without a word, he began to carefully cut Steve’s hair. 

“I love you daddy!” Steve said, after he examined his new hairstyle in the mirror.

”I love you Steve.” Tony said, hugging the boy 

His little boy.

—————————————————

Steve was still quite weak, and he had asthma. Over the years , Sarah and Tony took extra care, making sure one of them was with Steve at all times.

Ever since Tony turned 21, people had expected him to take over his company. He decided to stay put and be with his family instead. pressure to take over his company increased but Tony has flatly refused, letting Obadiah take care of the company. That was until Sarah encouraged him to do it.

”I know that will make you busy but I can tell you want to do it. We’ll be fine.”

Tony finally relented and took over the company when he turned 23. A year later, the stocks of SI had doubled and the R & D sector had been revolutionized.

In a short time, Tony had taken his fathers company and had expanded it farther than Howard ever could. 

But no matter what he did, the one thing Tony was proud of the most was his son, always his son.

Little Steve was proving to be a genius himself. He had inherited his fathers intellect, but seemed to be leaning towards the artist side like his mother. Already their house was filled with drawings that six year old Steve had made. 

Sarah and Tony had home schooled him till then , but Sarah had decided that it was time Steve went to school. Tony was not happy.

”But why. Homeschooling him works perfectly fine. Why change now?” He protested

”He needs to be with kids his age. Make friends. Play with them. We can’t give him that at home.” Sarah explained patiently.

”what if he’s bullied? He’s still so small for his age.” 

“Tony” Sarah sighed “We can’t keep using his health as an excuse. It’s unfair to him that we treat him differently than other kids. I know it’s scary but we have to do what’s best for him and not for us.” She said

Tony still wasn’t convinced. Sarah the enlisted Rhodey's help (and seriously when had those two become so close?) , and soon the two of them were teaming up against him and Tony had no choice but to give in.

His only satisfaction had been that Steve seemed just as opposed to the idea as him

”But daddy, I want to stay with you. You promise we’d go to the lab and you’d teach me things.” He said when they explained that he would be going to school

”But Steve, you can make friends at school and there’s going to be nice teachers. You can play and have a lot of fun. It’ll be great.” Sarah explained

’liar’ Tony coughed under his breath.

Sarah shot him a dirty look before turning back to Steve, who looked like he was about to cry.

”Don’ wanna go.” He said, sniffling 

“Oh baby! Don’t cry.” Sarah pleaded

”Tell you what bud? You go tomorrow and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to go again the next day. And after you come home tomorrow I’ll take you to the lab. Okay?” Tony asked

Steve thought about it for a moment before nodding enthusiastically. 

“I help you build stuff daddy?” He asked

”Sure bambino.” Tony said

”We build a-a submarine daddy? We can say hi to Ariel.” 

Tony laughed. Steve loved Disney movies. 

“Of course. Beautiful red headed mermaid? Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” 

“Ha ha.” Sarah said sarcastically, but she was smiling as she watched Tony start to chase Steve around the room, tickling him when he caught him. 

Much to Tony’s disappointment, Steve loved school. 

That day, both parents had fussed over Steve throughout the car ride. Tony couldn’t leave the car and risk anyone recognizing him.So he had to say good bye in the car.

Tony admits he shed a few tears as he watched Sarah walk Steve to the school and hand him over to a teacher. 

Sarah insists that he outright bawled for an hour. Not true.

Okay, maybe slightly true. But you can’t blame him, his son was growing up so fast!

Steve came home that day and wouldn’t stop gushing about how much he loved school and how this kid called Jacob was his new best friend.

Rhodey came to visit that day.

”Hey squirt. How was first day of school huh? Daddy convinced you to drop out yet?”

”Uncle Rhodey! Look, my teacher gave me a sticker today cause I colored inside the lines and the principle called me a genius cause I can do multiplications and divisions and I made a new best friend, Jacob Hammer, he’s the best-est person, and daddy’s gonna help me build a submarine for Ariel.” Steve exclaimed all in one breath

”Slow down squirt. Ariel huh?”

”Excuse me? What was that part about Jacob Hammer?” Tony interjected

”Oh crap .” Sarah whispered 

“You knew? You knew our son was friends with Justin hammers nephew?” Tony asked, pointing an accusatory finger at her 

“They just met Tony. It’s not like the kid is gonna drag Stevie into some cult against you.” She said

”Yeah man! Relax, they’re just kids.” Rhodey reasoned

”I’m telling you, the kid is bad influence. If anything he must’ve inherited the Hammer family’s low common sense. I don’t want that rubbing off on my son.”

Sarah shook her head in exasperation 

“Daddy! Submarine!” Steve exclaimed 

“C’mon piccolo. Let’s go to the lab and we’ll see who the ‘bestest’ person really is.” Tony said

”Competing with a first grader?really?” Rhodey asked

Tony flipped him off when Steve wasn’t looking and picked up the boy before heading towards the little workshop Tony had built in the woods a little distance from the cabin. 

“Don’t actually build a submarine!” Sarah called out after them

Tony simply winked at her, which was not at all reassuring.

————————————————-

Steve was eleven when he started using binders. They were really uncomfortable at times but Steve was persistent.

Tony spent three days in the lab coming up with a smart binder made out of thin and comfortable material that held tight without making it difficult to breathe.

Steve wouldn’t stop smiling the whole day.

—————————————————

He should’ve seen it coming. Nothing good ever lasted this long before everything crashed and burned.

Steve had been 12 when it first happened. The country was in chaos after an unexpected terror attack in New York. 

That's when they made their first move with the assassination of the president. 

Hydra had been quite since Howard and Maria Stark's death. And now, they were attacking with full force on an already fragile peace.

Tony was ranked high on the list of suspected targets.

That's when Nick Fury contacted him. The man with the eye patch claiming to be a friend of Howard’s and the director of SHIELD, the secret organisation Howard had helped build. 

“We know about your wife and son. And if we do, it’s safe to assume Hydra does as well. You need to hide.” Fury told him

Once he got over the initial shock, Tony quickly immersed himself into building security measures for the cabin. He constructed an almost impenetrable security system with shield officers guarding the perimeter of their house.

”Is it the power source your father had been searching for? Is that why they’re targeting us?” Sarah asked as soon as they were alone

Tony had thought about that. Wondered if maybe that was why his parents were killed. 

If that was the case, then where was the power source now? 

As the months progressed, hydra seemed to quiet down again. No more attacks had happened since the first and everyone began to relax a little.

Tony was only growing more restless. He knew his increasingly erratic behavior was bothering Sarah. She hates being told what to do and where to go and yet, she was patient with him. 

Then, he got that call from SHIELD. They said they located the power source, a cube which seemed to contain unlimited energy. They were calling it the tesseract. 

Tony had been called because they thought, since Howard researched so much about it, then maybe he would know something about how the cube worked.

He should have realized what a load of bullshit that was. 

It has been a trap, a diversion. He realized that as he arrived at the meeting place only to find that there was nothing there.

His thoughts were only confirmed when he got Sarah’s call.

”There’s someone outside our house, trying to break in.” She said, her voice was steady and calm, but Tony knew she was trying to keep it together for Steve’s sake. 

"I'm coming as fast as I can. Whatever you do, do not trust those Agents. SHIELDs been infiltrated by Hydra.” Tony warned. He was driving as fast as be could, but it was still too slow.

He heard a crash and scream from the phone.

”Sarah? SARAH!! Steve! Answer me dammit! What happened?.”tony yelled 

“Dad?” Steve’s terrified voice came through the phone a minute later.

”Oh Steve! Are you alright piccolo?” Tony asked “Where’s mom?”

”They cut off the power and one of those people outside crashed the window in my bedroom. But mom restarted the force field you built using the backup generator. We’re safe for now.” Steve’s voice was trembling “Dad?...moms hurt. She got hit just before she could start the force field.” Steve said softly 

“How bad?” Tony asked, gritting his teeth

”I’m okay Tony. It’s just a graze.” Sarah’s voice came a second later 

“I’ll be there in a few more minutes. Rhodey knows and he’s bringing backup. Just stay put for a few more minutes baby.” 

“I don’t think we can Tony. They have it. They have the tessaract and...Steve, honey, can you please bring me the first aid kit?” Sarah told Steve 

“What is it? What don’t you want him to hear?” Tony asked

”I didn’t listen to much of what they said and absolutely none of it made sense to me, but I think they’re here for Steve.” She whispered.

“What? Why?”

“Whoever these people are, I don’t think they’re Hydra. Or at least, not just them.”

Tony’s blood turned cold.

Before he could ask anything else however, Steve’s voice came through.

”Mom! Oh no...no don’t fall asleep. Dad? Dad she’s losing consciousness. What do I do?” Steve’s voice was frantic

”Hey! Steve you gotta relax kiddo. Can you check the bullet wound? See if the bullets still there?”

”yeah..I-yeah okay.” Steve’s voice was still scared but he sounded determined. “No. There’s an exit wound. But she’s bleeding quite heavily.”

”Keep pressure on the wound and wake her up. She can’t fall asleep. “

”Okay...Mom? Mom you gotta listen to me. Dads coming okay? You have to stay awake. Mom please? “

A moment later, Tony heard Sarah’s weak voice 

“Steve? Are they still here? Steve you gotta...you gotta hide baby. They c-can’t find you” Sarah groaned in pain “You have to hide. Panic room. Go!” She said, gasping

”I’m not leaving you!” Steve protested. 

Just then, a blast sounded

”Sarah? Steve? No, god no!please be okay.”

”Who are you?” Sarah was asking someone “St-stay away from my son.” 

“Mom! Help! Dad! Daddy!” 

“Oh Steve, baby I’m coming. Almost there. Just a few more minutes.” Tony said as he slammed the gas pedal all the way to the ground 

deep down, he knew he was gonna be late

there was static on the phone. He heard a few blasts and something like a gun fight. Then Sarah voice came through

”You have to protect him. Promise me you’ll take him somewhere safe.”

”I will take him to where he is meant to be. He has a great destiny ahead. His life cannot end here.”

Tony almost crashed when he heard the new voice. 

“Who the hell was that. Sarah? Where are you sending our son?”

”I’m sorry Tony but it’s the only way. He showed me what happens. Hopefully, you’ll see our boy again, sometime in the future.”she said, sounding like she was crying 

“Sarah...where is he? Just stay put baby, I’ll be there. I’m almost there.”

”Oh Steve! My baby. You’re gonna do great things love. But I won’t be a part of it. I love you baby. Forever and always. You have to go now.”

”Sarah stop! Stop!” Tony screamed 

“Mom. Mommy? Daddy please come fast. Da-“

”Steve? STEVE?” 

“He’s gone Tony. He’s safe.” Sarah said 

“Sarah? What have you done.” 

“I did- did what I had to. T-to keep him safe. Some day you’ll understand. I’m sorry I can’t explain it myself. “ 

There was another crash and Sarah gasped. 

“They’re almost inside. I don’t have much time.” She choked back a sob “Listen to me Tony,...you’ve gotta remember him. Don’t forget. You hear me. Don’t let him be erased form this time. He’ll-He’ll need you. You’re-you're gonna forget a lot of things By morning. The whole world will. Don’t forget him.” 

“ Sarah what are you..?”

”I love you Shellhead.” 

Tony finally reached the cabin. He slammed the breaks and almost made it to the porch before an explosion knocked him backwards.

The last thing he remembered was seeing a flash of green light from the forest, and then everything went dark.

—————————————————

Tony woke up in the hospital, feeling woozy and disoriented, like he was forgetting something important.

”Hey! You’re awake.” He heard a voice say and saw Rhodey sitting at his bedside 

“What happened?” Tony asked 

‘ _Remember_.’ A voice said ‘ _Don’t forget him_.’ ‘ _I love you shellhead_ ’ 

And suddenly, everything came back to him.

”oh god. No! No no _no_. This can’t be real.” 

“They’re gone Tony. Sarah, she... They found her body. It was burned beyond recognition. We could only identify her because of her ring.” He said, dropping a wedding band into Tony’s lap. 

Tony picked up the ring with shaking hands. The band was slightly cracked on the outside but it was otherwise okay.

He read the inscription inside. _‘Tesoro mio’_ \- my treasure.

A tiny part of Tony’s brain kept telling him there was something wrong about the ring. Something about the metal?

But Tony was too grief stricken to care. His wife, the love of his life, his Sarah was...gone. Burned beyond recognition.

He felt like he was forgetting someone. When he realized who, he almost jumped out of bed.

”Hey, careful now. You’re still hurt.”

”Steve? Where’s Steve?” Tony asked frantically 

Rhodeys broken expression answered Tony’s question

He felt like whatever little life had been left inside him was shattered all over again. Burned like his family.

”The surveillance footage before the explosion placed him in the kitchen. When the gas exploded, he was right next to it. The explosion was pretty big and Tony...they uh...they couldn’t find a body.” Rhodes said

Tony didn’t know how to react to that. He wanted scream, to kick maim and hurt something. He wanted to throw up or curl into himself and cry. He wanted to vanish from existence. 

He wanted to die.

He looked at the ring in his hand and brought out the chain with his wedding band. He slipped the Sarah’s ring onto the chain to join his.

”He’s still alive.” Tony said 

“What? “

”Steve. You said they didn’t find a body? Maybe he escaped. He must be alive. We have to go search for him.” 

“Tony.” Rhodey sighed. Tony could see the sympathy and pain in his best friends eyes. He thought he was in denial.

but this wasn’t denial. His son was alive. He didn’t know how he knew but that was the truth. 

‘ _He’ll need you_.’ The voice, _her_ voice said 

I’m going to find him. Tony thought firmly.

—————————————————

He woke up to find himself in a little house. His clothes were torn and burnt in a few places and he felt his whole body aching. All that smoke had made it difficult to breathe, he needed his inhaler.

The explosion. Hydra!

His _mom_!

”Hey! You’re awake. I found you on the street, you’d collapsed. Someone beat you up or something?” A boy, maybe two or three years older than him was saying 

“Where am I?” He asked

The last thing he remembered was his mom and a some strange guy and his house exploding and a flash of green light.

“You’re in my house. In Brooklyn. Ma is making soup right now, once you drink that, you’ll feel better.” The boy said

Steve finally opened his eyes and looked around. Everything looked different. Everything was so old. There wasn’t any modern tech like tv or phones. Instead there was a radio softly panting some jazz music he didn’t recognise. 

Then he saw the poster and almost gasped in shock. It was a war propaganda poster for recruiting young men, hanging in the living room. 

A horrible thought occurred to Him

”what’s the date?” He asked the boy, still sitting next to him 

The boy frowned 

“It’s frebruary 11, 1940. I’m Bucky by the way. Bucky Barnes. And you?”

”Steve.” He replied faintly, before his eyes closed and he was unconscious again. 

—————————————————

A week after Sarah’s death, they held a funeral for her. Tony wasn’t in the state to do it so Rhodey brought the coffin and had her places in it. He also brought an empty coffin for Steve.

Tony didn’t say anything when he saw the second coffin. He still believed Steve was alive, no matter what Rhodey said.

they buried the coffins in a little clearing beside the cabin. It was just the two of them, no one else knew about Sarah.

Tony touched the simple onyx headstone. 

Sarah Rogers-Stark

1976-2006

~Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. ~

Tony kept dreaming about her. She always said things he never understood. But these lines, they sound so similar to what she seemed to be saying.

Besides,Sarah always did like Shakespeare.

the second headstone was all Rhodey. Tony refused to consider the idea of making one. 

Steven Grant Rogers-Stark

1993 - 2006

~In my hearts the memory and there you’ll always be~

Tony almost snorted. The fox and the hound. 

He turned back to Sarah’s grave

”I need a moment.” He said 

“Of course. I’ll be in the car. Take your time buddy.”

Tony waited until Rhodey was gone before he kneeled down and pressed his forehead against the headstone

”When I woke up, it was like everything had changed and not just because of the blast. I can’t help but think it was no accident.”

”I keep hearing your voice, words I don’t remember you telling me. But I know one thing for sure, he’s alive. Our son is not gone and he needs me.”

”I promise you Sarah, I will find him. I love you _mio Tesoro_. Till the day I die.”

Tony stood up and kissed his fingers before pressing them to the headstone.

—————————————————

Tony had viewed the surveillance footage a million times by now. For six months, he searched relentlessly for his son. 

But it was proving useless, like he had vanished from the face of earth. Each day he failed, the more broken he became.

Six months later, he finally considered the fact that maybe he was wrong. Maybe his boy was dead. 

Rhodey tried to help, being the only one who knew. The rest of the world believed Tony was back to being the irresponsible playboy.

He was drinking continuously, and bringing home women. Though he couldn’t really sleep with him, he kept remembering her face and stopped before he could get too far.

The tabloids were once again overrun with rumours and pictures and Tony just couldn’t bring himself to care. 

They didn’t know about his family and what he lost, tony didn’t want to tell.

When he could no longer bring himself to search for Steve, Tony immersed himself in the company, the only thing that gave him purpose anymore.

He didn’t care how he was making his money any more.

So Tony Stark put on a smile and faced the world like he owned it,never letting anyone inside, never letting them see who he was. 

And then, Afghanistan happened.

Iron Man was born


	2. Back in black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Iron man Au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all...so here’s the next chapter. I hope you all like it. 
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own marvel or mcu....if I did, endgame would have been different

Every one around him were celebrating.

It was Independence Day, as well as the legendary hero Steve Rogers, A.K.A Captain America’s Birthday. 

What no one knew was today was someone else’s birthday.

Steve Rogers Stark, Tony’s son.

Why they named their son after the super soldier, Tony couldn’t remember. Then again, he seemed to be forgetting a lot of things these days. Ever since he lost his family.

But one thing was sure, their son sharing his name with Captain America had to be a coincidence. Even though Tony grew up idolising the soldier, he started hating the guy after realising that his father cared more about finding him then he did about his own son. 

Tony was standing in front of the captain America exhibit in the smithsonian, frowning at the picture of the man. 

Star spangled uniform and shield aside, there was something eerily familiar about him. 

His face was covered by the cowl and the picture was black and white and grainy. But the lower half of the face was uncovered and the hard set of the mans jaw reminded Tony of...well himself.

Tony never felt like this before. It was only after his family’s death that he felt this way.

He stared at the picture one last time before walking out and into his car.

He went straight home, not wanting a repeat of last year. He had gotten drunk and was almost arrested for public nuisance. If it hadn’t been for pepper, things would’ve gotten really messy.

The Anniversary had been so much worse.

It was only when Rhodey had yelled that Sarah would have been so ashamed to see him like that, that Tony decided to stop. As angry as he had been at Rhodey for saying that, he knew it was true.

Not that he stopped drinking. He simply kept to his house when he got drunk...every other night.

This year, he intended to keep his promise. He reached the mansion and though he wanted to go straight to the lab, he went to that room instead.

Steve’s old bedroom.

Every year, during summer vacation, Tony would bring Steve and Sarah to the mansion in Malibu. During those months nobody, except for Rhodey, was allowed in the house. The press had speculated many times about what he did in that time, going as far as accusing him of satanic rituals. Nobody had even come close to guessing the truth. He sold the playboy image a little too well he supposed.

Even now, nobody but him had authorisation to enter that room. JARVIS made sure of that. 

He went in, taking in the large bed and closet, with all his stuff still in it. All of his old toys were in a big wooden box in the corner and his old inhaler in the drawer beside the bed. 

Tony picked up the Walkman Steve insisted on using just to annoy Tony, refusing the much better, much advance music players his company made. 

The Nirvana cassette tape was still inside. 

That had been another thing they argued about, Nirvana or AC/DC. They both liked the other band as well of course, they disagreed purely on principle.

Tony couldn’t help but chuckle when he remembered that.

After a while, Tony gave the room one last look before locking himself in the lab.

—————————————————

It was two months after the anniversary and Tony still wasn’t ready to deal with the world outside. 

He thought that after two years, things would become easier. If anything they became worse.

He was supposed to attend some award ceremony.

Naturally he didn’t attend. Instead he found himself in a casino, surrounded by beautiful women whose faces he honestly couldn’t even remember and fake laughter.

Rhodey was presenting the award, he would surely understand right. 

He made some jokes and sarcastic comments, drank a little before deciding to go home so he could drink more.

He just _had_ to be interrupted by that reporter. 

She was feisty, he’d give her that. But she was starting to annoy him and even though she was nothing like his type, he flirted with her while she basically called him a mass murderer. And then he took her home. 

He had no intention of sleeping with her of course, they simply got really drunk and she fell asleep, half naked,on his bed while he slipped away to the lab, letting Pepper deal with her in the morning.

When he asked JARVIS if the girl, Kristen?, had left, he showed him a footage of Pepper ‘politely’ escorting her outside.

Now _that_ was the kind of women he was attracted to. To bad he was too messed up to ever make it work with her.

Pepper came to his lab while he was working on the car. It was one of the few memories of Steve that didn’t make Tony want to reach for a bottle. His son didn’t care much for robots or AI but cars and automobiles were a language he understood very well. 

Even today, it brought some semblance of peace to Tony.

When Pepper told him it was her birthday, Tony genuinely felt bad for forgetting. And Peppers answer only made him more attracted to her. So he walked away, not wanting to address those feelings, like he was somehow betraying Sarah by moving on . 

Deep down, he knew that was stupid and irrational, but then again, he needed was the most rational person to begin with.

He drove to the plane and met Rhodey, who gave him some lecture about being late. Tony ignored him and decided to spend some quality time with his best friend when he wasn’t acting so uptight.

So he got them both drunk. 

Throughout the presentation for his weapons, Tony maintained the confident, arrogant facade he showed everyone. He made a great dramatic show (face it, he’s a drama queen) and couldn’t help but feel smug at their awed expressions. 

Then the blast. Tony almost had a panic attack right then, as he was suddenly reminded of the day his family was killed. Then, his chest was bleeding and he lost consciousness.

He woke up on a table, surrounded by people who were doing something to him. The pain was agonising and he was unconscious again before he could make sense of anything.

If he was going to die, then so be it. He could almost feel it, the strange sense of peace and calm. He could be with Sarah and Steve again. He wanted This.

‘ _Not now Tony, you still have much to do. Wake up_ ’

Her voice. He could feel her, like she was right next to him. Almost like he imagined it, he felt the ghost of a kiss and a gentle hand carding through his hair. It was so familiar, Tony wanted to live in this dream forever. 

‘ _You have to wake up shell head. He’ll be coming back, anytime now. You have to be there for him_.’

’ _Y_ _ou promised_ ’

Tony opened his eyes, the details of the dream fading away, taking the calm and peace with it.

Instead, he woke to find himself hooked to a car battery with wires coming from _inside_ his chest. 

If it hadn’t been for Yinsen, Tony would have gone insane. 

Many times, he considered the idea of letting them kill him. He thought about it before, killing him self, but Sarah’s disappointed face kept coming to him and he could never go with it. Didn’t mean he had to stop them from killing him.

But then Yinsen knocked some sense into him and he decided to fight. He sure as hell wasnt supplying these terrorists with weapons to kill innocent people, he could build something to help them escape.

’you promised’ he kept hearing her say. He doesn’t remember what he promised, but whatever it was required him to stay alive. He was going to do exactly that.

Yinsen asked him about his family and Tony didn’t know what to say. Yinsen seemed to understand what he lost, and Tony was shocked at the amount of perception and understanding in the older mans eyes. He would find out why later of course. 

Tony almost sobbed in relief when Yinsen showed him the chain with the rings. When he woke up without them , he felt like he’d lost her all over again. 

But Yinsens words made him promise himself one thing, he would at least try to move on after this was all over. Maybe ask Pepper out on a date.

’What do you think of your shellhead now Sarah’ Tony thought as he read the inscription in her ring. _my shellhead_

The suit was almost ready and it was time to execute their plan. But they didn’t have enough time and even before Yinsen picked up the gun, Tony knew , or at least suspected, that Yinsen had no intention of making it out alive. 

That didn’t mean it was any less of a shock. 

And then Tony was outside for the first time in months. He blasted and shot every one that came in his way, trying to avenge his friends death.

When the helicopter finally found him, Tony made a decision even before he got in.

They landed in America and Tony was greeted by the two other people aside from Rhodey who actually seemed to care about him.

Finding out Pepper cried for him was definitely not good for his ego.

Still, he couldn’t help but feel a little smug about it.

He got himself some cheeseburgers, called a press conference and immediately shut down the weapons manufacturering division of SI. 

The reaction was instantaneous of course. But Tony refused to change his decision. It was something he should have done ages ago.

Instead, he started working on the suit and developing the arc reactor technology. 

When his reactor needed replacing he almost didn’t call for help. But he remembered the promise he made to himself, to move on. He called Pepper

To be honest, he had been more surprised than Pepper at how much he trusted her. But he meant it when he said she was all he had.

He had expected her to look at him with pity, instead she seemed rather flattered by what he said, and maybe their was a little bit of....love?

he decided not to dwell on that just yet, he had work to do.

He made Iron Man and started helping people. He became a hero of sorts. 

Pepper had modified the old reactor he’d asked her to throw away.

’proof that Tony Stark has a heart.’

He had never shown her a true glimpse of the man behind the mask, she saw it anyway.

When he saw Pepper in that party, in that dress with her hair let down, looking relaxed and so beautiful..For the second time in his life, Tony fell in love.

He plucked up some courage and talked to her, taking her to the roof. They almost kissed, when he was interrupted and he left her there.

He should have known. Ever since his parents died, That greedy old man had his eyes set on Tony’s fortune.

Weeding and manipulating his way into Tony’s mind, pretending to care for him, filling in for his father.

Obie was selling weapons behind his back, had kicked him out of his own company and was now after the one thing that was keeping him alive.

Even when he did find out, it didn’t stop him from being surprised when Obie tried to kill him. He watched helplessly as the paralytic shot stopped him from doing anything while Obie stole the reactor, taunting him with Peppers death.

He was on the floor, he couldn’t get to the spare reactor in time. 

He couldn’t breathe. He was dying.

And then dummy handed the reactor to him and he quickly fixed it in his chest.

Dummy had been the last project Steve and Tony had worked on together. Steve never liked that kind of work but had been really exited to work on this one.

“I want to build you a helping hand in the lab dad.” He had told tony, who hadn’t realised until later that the boy literally meant a helping hand.

So they had worked together to build the robot, except it had some slight malfunctioning.

Steve has cheekily named it DUM-E.

“It’s a play on Dummy, get it?” He told Tony, who rolled his eyes and ruffled his hair.

After the explosion, Tony couldn’t bring himself to fix the bot. Over the years, it had grown into something like a son to him, despite his insistence that it was useless

And now, The little bot had saved his life. His _son_ had saved his life.

Tony rushed to stop Obie. He fought against the iron monger suit, despite his low powered reactor, and he _survived_. He won.

Then, that press report. Common sense would’ve been to keep Iron Mans identity a secret.

But when he saw the judgement in everyone’s eyes, the false image he’d been selling for so long, he wanted to change that.

‘Merchant of death’

‘Hero’

‘Billionaire playboy’

‘Philanthropist’

‘Genius’

“I am Iron Man.”

————————————————

Nick Fury met him( and honestly, what was the guys deal? Sneaking into his lab to make some dramatic monologue while walking from the dark to light...ugh)

He told Tony about his idea, of bringing together a bunch of people with abilities. Tony didn’t know how to respond to that except that the guy seems familiar. And Tony was pretty sure he’d remember a guy like that (the dude had an eye patch for fucks sake). But he couldn’t remember where he had seen him.

————————————————

He was getting better. Stark industries was working to produce clean sustainable energy using the arc reactor tech. He had re instituted theStark Expo. He was cleaning up the mess the weapons manufacturing days had done. He was saving people.

He finally had a purpose, a reason to live.

But of course fate had other plans. The very thing that was keeping him alive was slowly, painfully poisoning him, killing him.

So he started acting recklessly. Selling his stuff, hosting parties.

He sold all the paintings to donate money for the Boy Scouts. He secretly kept one though. Pepper has unknowingly bought one of Sarah’s paintings, almost giving Tonya heart attack when he first saw it.

It had been a painting of Central Park, the view from the lake, a couple siting next to it.

Only, the park looked completely different to the one they had. It looked smaller, the lake surrounded by a fence and smoke coming from a distance. The place was surrounded by the aftermath of great destruction. And in the midst of that, a tiny speck of love, the only bright part of the dark, dreary landscape

Art connoisseurs speculated her idea to great extent. They believed she was depicting the growing climate change and its consequences. Or maybe showing love in a war zone.

Tony couldn’t help but think she was simply showing the truth.

He still cared about the company. He wanted to leave it in capable hands. So he he made Pepper the CEO. He knew a lot of people would question his decision, but no one was more capable than Pepper.

His condition was only getting worse.

When Pepper brought that new girl to hire her as his assistant, Tony didn’t think much about her. Only that he was quite intrigued by her and decided it would be amusing to have her around.

Natalie proved herself to be quite effective, but something about her sweet, polite personality struck him as odd, but he was too caught up in his own thoughts to actually care.

He visited their graves for the first time since the funeral. There had been a grove filled with lavenders and other wild flowers near a pond a little distance from the cabin. Sarah loved sitting there and sketching for hours.

Tony plucked some flowers from there and walked alone to the grave site.

“Hey love. I know I haven’t- haven’t visited before. I was too scared I guess. But I’m here now.” Tony paused, not knowing what to say “ For what it’s worth, I did try you know? I didn’t just give up and accept death, like I would have done before.”

Tony knelt in front of the grave, placing the flowers there.

“I know I promised to stay alive. I know there’s something you wanted me to do, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember what. And now I don’t have time. I’m sorry”

He kissed his fingers and pressed it to the headstone.

“I’ll see you soon _mio Tesoro_.”

He then turned toward the second grave, and the grief he felt almost crippled him.

No parent should ever have the misfortune of outliving their child.

After the first few months of madness, when he was still in denial over his sons death, it had been so hard to accept that his son was gone.

Every thing, every thought that reminded him of Steve threw him over the edge.

Even now, the headstone felt so wrong.

“I love you Piccolo and I will never forget you. You are the first thought I have every morning and the last thought every night. Till the day I die and even after that, I will love you.”

Tony brought out the little frame with one of Steve’s sketches.It was a detailed sketch of the three of them.

That day, Sarah had just come back from an auction where several of her paintings were sold tobig buyers and museums. Steve and Tony wanted to surprise her and brought out a picnic table and hung out lights all over the front lawn. They had to order food though because neither Tony nor Steve could cook to save their lives.

That day had been one of the best in Tony’s life and Steve had captured the moment so beautifully in his drawing that Tony had it framed.

He now laid out the frame in front of the grave.

Without a second glance, Tony walked away from the graves, feeling oddly peaceful and restless at the same time.

————————————————

Justin Hammer! Tony wished the guy would just leave him alone already. He walked away from the reporter and Hammer, giving the stink eye to Jacob Hammer who was also attending the event.

He remembered how Steve would play with that Jacob kid all the time before they both grew up and Jacob turned out to be a bully while Steve, more often than not, his target.

Seeing that kid just made him want to punch him in the face, which was probably not good for his already bad publicity as of late.

Instead, he got onto the race track.

How was he supposed to know he would be attacked? The crazy guy with a replica of the reactor that actually worked attacked him, slicing at him with freakin’ electrified whips and wrecking the car.

Pepper and Happy saved his life by bringing the suit to him in time.

The guy, Vanko, didn’t seem to care that he was caught. He wanted to prove that Iron Man wasn’t invincible. He taunted Tony about the palladium poisoning and Tony couldn’t shake off the thought that the guy was planning something big.

But his imminent death was taking most of his concern.

He really wanted to spend his birthday with Pepper. A peaceful time away from everyone else, from responsibilities and media and people trying to kill him.

That seemed like a good way to go.

Instead he was hosting his birthday party in his mansion for a bunch of people he didn’t care about.

He asked Natalie what she would do if it was her last birthday party, her answer was all the encouragement he needed to do the most reckless thing he could.

So he put on his suit, got drunk in public and trashed the house while fighting with Rhodey, before the latter confiscated one of his suits for the us Air Force.

Later he ended up eating donuts sitting inside a giant donut.

He had accepted his death

Until Nick Fury came along and told him he hadn’t tried everything.

He had known there was something off about Natalie, but was still surprised and couldn’t keep the anger off his face at her for betraying not just him, but Pepper.

They gave him the shot to ‘take the edge off’ and then put him on lock down so he could figure the solution his father had apparently left for him.

Phil Coulsonwas left behind to babysit him and Tony set to work, opening the boxes that apparently belonged to Howard Stark.

He saw that video of his father claiming that he was his greatest creation. Still, wouldn’t have hurt if he had said to Tony’s face once in a while.

Tony had promised himself that he would never treat his child the he was treated and he was proud to say he kept that promise.

While he was working, the chain with Tony’s rings came loose from his shirt and Tony frowned at them, once again intrigued by the strange metal.

Now more than ever, it seemed important that he figure out what metal this was.

Tony figured out the hidden message in the diorama and set to work.

“Sir, you have rediscovered a new metal” JARVIS’ voice proclaimed, the AI actually sounding proud

Tony couldn’t stop smiling as he fixed the new core.

He examined the rings once again, this time he was sure he knew what they were made of. But where had he found enough metal to make these and why didn’t he remember?

But like they say, no rest for the wicked, and Tony could barely celebrate his success or contemplate the rings before he was rushing to save everyone....again.

He arrived just in time to warn Rhodey and get everyone to safety.

And of fucking course Justin Hammer was behind all this. He managed to sneak out Vanko and build these drones and now Tony was cleaning up his mess.

Agent Romanoff managed to override the codes on Rhodey’s suit and he was in control of the suit again.

Pepper had gotten Hammer arrested and found out he almost died. She may have yelled at him in anger, but Tony didn’t miss the concern.

Tony jumped in front of the kid in the iron man mask and blasted the drone. Standing up to a drone like that, it was such a Steve thing to do that Tony felt a pang if sadness and pride all together.

He fought Vanko with Rhodey and defeated him. He then rescued pepper from an exploding drone and flew her to the roof top.

‘Not again’ he thought. Never again would he lose someone to an explosion. He wasn’t going to lose anyone, period.

He kissed Pepper.

Everything seemed to be going right.

Nick Fury came to him with the Agent Romonoff’s assessment of him and his eligibility for the ‘Avengers Initiative’. Not recommended.

 _Not recommended?_ To say that didn’t hurt would be a lie.

But he still put up an arrogant face and told Nick Fury they couldn’t afford him.

He did cash in his favour though. The constipated expression on Senetor Sterns face as he congratulated Tony and gave him a medal was soooo worth it. Even the little prick was a small thing to endure.

————————————————

His life was going pretty well now.

The company was running smoothly, Iron man was still helping people and his relationship with Pepper was going great.

It had been 6 years since Steve and Sarah had died. Tony had mostly moved on, it was still hard sometimes, but he wasn’t alone now. He was done shutting out and Rhodey and instead talked to him about it when it got too hard.

He had finally told Pepper about his past life and she had been shocked at first, but quite understanding.

Tony was so grateful for her.

And then, he was called to SHEILD and his life changed all over again.

His son was alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be a captain America first avenger au.
> 
> So Steve’s pov...yay
> 
> Thanks to all the people who left kudos and commented, your love means a lot to me


	3. Lake of Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Captain America au

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so sorry for the delay...had lots of assignments to catch up with and this chapter took particularly long because I had to make sure everything was historically accurate( which I’m still doubtful about)  
> I’m not American and I have zero knowledge about American history so please ignore any mistakes 
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy

Steve woke up for the third time that day and this time, he actually stayed conscious.

He took in his surroundings again, praying that it had all been a bad dream and he was back home with his parents.

Nope, still stuck in the 40s.

The boy, Bucky was back again, this time with a tray of food

“You’re awake. Here, I got you some chow.” He said, and laid down the tray on a table beside the bed.

The tray had a bowl filled with hot soup and a glass of water.

He hadn’t realised how hungry he was until he started drinking that soup, finishing it in a single gulp.

“Whoa! Easy there sugar puss. When was the last time you ate?” Bucky asked

Steve put the empty bowl down, feeling guilty. He wasn’t great at history but he knew enough to realise he had landed in the tail end of the Great Depression years.

The room he was in was small and bare, the family was obviously not rich. The photo on the wall showed Bucky with his arms around two girls, probably his sisters.

While the soup was hot and filling, it was quite bland and too much water.

Not that he was complaining of course, he just didn’t understand why a family that had enough mouths to feed as it would share the little food they had to some strange kid like him.

“Thank you.” Steve told Bucky. His voice was raw and hoarse,but sounded better than when he first woke up.

“Don’t mention it. You said your name was Steve right? So, you gonna tell me how you ended up in that alley looking like you tried to run into fire?” Bucky asked

“I-I got mugged.” Steve said lamely

Bucky looked skeptical

“Listen kid, if you’re in trouble or something you don’t have to be afraid. I won’t turn you in-“

“No I’m not in any trouble. I just- our home, it’s gone. My mom, she was shot and...” Steve’s breath hitches as he thought of his mother. He could still picture her, lying alone the floor wounded as the hydra soldiers broke into the house. He had seen the explosion, just before he fell unconscious. His mother was gone.

And his father...Steve knew Tony probably thought he had died too. But he couldn’t help but hope that maybe his father would realise that something had happened, maybe find a way to bring him back.

If anyone could figure out a way to bring him back, it was Tony Stark.

“You know what, let’s get you some clean clothes. And probably a bath too, You smell terrible.”

Bucky led Steve to the bathroom. When Steve stood up, he realised his shirt was torn in quite a few places and his binder was peeking out.

Steve looked at Bucky, trying to gauge his reaction. Bucky smiled

“It’s okay. I already saw that.”

When Steve still didn’t say anything, Bucky continued

“ You know there used to be this girl Dana, she lived right across the street. She was like you, I guess. Dana baked the best cookies and always brought some over for my sisters and me. I liked her.” Bucky admitted, a faint blush creeping across his cheeks

“What happened to her.” Steve asked

Bucky’s expression changed. He looked angry and upset

“Some booger’s who lived in her building found out about her and they all beat her up and kicked her out. I haven’t seen her since.” He said softly

Steve’s blood turned cold. Things hadn’t exactly been easy in his time but at least he could expect some acceptance, some sense of safety.

But now, not only was he alone, away from home, but he was stuck in a time that was intolerant, war ravaged and dangerous for someone like him.

He couldn’t breathe

He needed his inhaler, only he didn’t have it.

Did the 40s even have medication for asthma?

Oh god! Oh no! This couldn’t be happening.

“Hey. Breathe okay? It’ll be okay. Just breathe.” Bucky was saying.

Steve hadn’t realised he’d crumbled to the floor. He was shaking and trying to draw breath, but the tightness in his chest prevented him from doing so.

“I’m sorry, but this will help you breathe.” Bucky said and started loosening the ties of the binder.

Almost immediately he could breathe a little better.

It was a few minutes before he felt himself calm down.

“I’m sorry.” He told Bucky

“Don’t be. It’s alright, I shouldn’t have freaked you out like that.” He hesitated a moment before continuing “Listen, I won’t tell anyone about this okay” he said, indicating toward Steve’s binder

“I won’t let anyone hurt you like they hurt Dana. I promise.” Bucky said. Steve was surprised by how firm he sounded

“Thanks. You’ve helped me a lot already. I’ll leave as soon as I change.” He said

“Leave? Where will you go?” Vicky asked

He didn’t know. Maybe he could go to Howard Stark. Would he believe Steve if he told him the truth.

‘Hi, I’m your grandson from the future. A super secret Nazi organisation attacked us and some strange guy sent me back to the past because I’m supposed to save the world or something. You mind if I crash at your place?’ It felt like some freaky version of back to the future.

They’d probably think he was mad.

“Why don’t you go take a bath first? We’ll talk about where you’ll go later.” Bucky said

Steve nodded and accepted the clothes Bucky gave him. They were quite big for him, but they would do.

————————————————

Mrs. Barnes was a sweet looking lady who was just as fierce as she was kind.

And she seemed to absolutely adore Steve, though for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why.

But it was obvious Steve couldn’t stay with them. Even if food and space wasn’t a problem, the authorities wouldn’t allow it.

Instead, he was to stay at an orphanage half a block from the Barnes house. He had stayed with the Barnes for a week before the orphanage arranged to take him in.

“You can come visit anytime you like doll.” Mrs. Barnes told him before packing a bag with a few of bucky’s old clothes that looked like they would fit him.

“I wish you could stay with us.” Lizzy, Bucky’s ten year old sister said. Ever since Steve drew a portrait of her, she had been sticking to his side like glue.

“Be careful. And do remember to visit.” Cathy, Bucky’s other sister said while hugging him

“Come on punk, I’ll walk you there.”Bucky said, shouldering Steve’s bag

It had been a week since Steve met Bucky and it was surprising how close they grew in that short time.

Bucky didn’t seem to care that Steve was trans or that he was short and skinny and too weak to keep up with him.

He was the first real friend Steve ever had.

That didn’t make this whole situation any better though.

Living in the 40s was hard. He had to be careful about what he said, like using slang words or accidentally revealing a future event.

He didn’t understand most of the stuff everyone was talking about. Everything was so different and confusing.

The worst part? Living without modern technology like phones and the internet and tv.

Ugh!!!

He just really hoped someone would rescue him from this.

————————————————

Living in the orphanage was hard, but Steve adapted surprisingly quick.

He had lied when they asked about his age, telling them he was 16. Bucky knew the truth of course, but he didn’t call him out on it.

“What about school?” He asked instead

“I graduated early.” Steve replied. It wasn’t entirely false. He had been half way through senior year before the whole time travel debacle.

Bucky didn’t believe him at first, but then Steve answered every math question Bucky could throw at him.

Instead, Steve wanted to search for a job. Bucky was about to graduate that year and he wanted to enlist in the army as soon as he could. Since he was only 17, he’d have to wait awhile.

Bucky was a champion boxer at ymca and Steve frequently went with him to his matches.

There, Steve met a guy from the newspaper who mentioned they were looking for cartoonists. Steve immediately offered and within a few days, the job was his.

“I still don’t get how they believed you’re 16. I could barely believe you when you said you were 13.” Bucky said when Steve told him about the job

“I can be really convincing when I have to.” Steve said, shrugging

“Ah! The puppy dog eyes. Thank god I learned to ignore them.” He said with a dramatic sigh

“What about you? You graduate in a month. Isn’t it time you earned your keep? Get a real job?”

“Oh really, an hour of being employed and already you think you’re better than me huh. Well listen punk, I got a job already.”

“The money you get for each boxing tournament is not a real job. Neither is the underground homework ring you’ve been running. Even if it was, I deserve like half the credit for that since I do most of the homework.” Steve said

“And I in return save your dumb ass every other day from thugs twice your size who you’ve pissed of with your big mouth.” Bucky said, throwing his arm around Steve’s shoulder and ruffling his hair

“Hey! Stop that” Steve protested

Bucky laughed.

“Hey, you wanna go to that carnival in Coney Island? I heard the carousel there is killer diller.”

“What, you asking me out in a date?”

“Who else will ask you on a date? I’m all you’ve got.”

“I walked into that one myself.” Steve said, shaking his head

“You coming or not?”

“I’ll come, but I’m not getting on the carousel.” Steve said

“We’ll see about that.”

————————————————

For almost a year, Steve managed to keep his transition a secret from the orphanage. But he knew that wouldn’t last. Didn’t mean he was prepared for it either.

And honestly, it came out in the worst way possible.

He woke up to find blood on his sheets. He knew this would come up soon, doesn’t mean he was prepared. He definitely was not happy.

Thank god he woke up early. After hiding the sheets and cleaning up, he used some tissue papers as a makeshift pad and hurried to Bucky’s house.

He had been freaking out the entire the time he walked, worried someone would find out.

He had never missed his parents as much as he did today.

His mom would know exactly what to do. They had discussed this before and talked about medication to stop him from menstruating.

His dad would probably freak out at first, but then he would spend hours researching ways to make this more comfortable for him and would probably invent something too help me. Preferably a pain killer for the cramps because they were killing him.

But his parents weren’t here so Steve went to the one person he could trust to make it better.

“Hey punk. What are you doing here so early - Are you crying? Hey, what’s wrong? Steve, talk to me.”

Steve buried his face in Bucky’s chest, to tired and emotional drained as he silently cried.

“I- I woke up today a-and the bed, I was- I don’t understand, don’t know what to do.”

“Steve what are you- oh.” Bucky said when he noticed the blood beginning to stain Steve’s pants

Steve stiffened against Bucky’s chest. Was this when it became too much for Bucky to accept or understand?

“It’s okay. We’ll figure this out. I’m sure Ma or Cathy could help us. We better go inside before someone sees this.” Bucky said and quickly ushered Steve inside

Steve couldn’t even begin to tell how relieved he was.

Mrs. Barnes, the angel, had calmly explained everything to Steve, almost like she had prepared for this. She gave him a box of supplies and told him how to use it.

“Why are you so accepting of this?” Steve asked her

She purses her lips, contemplating her answer

“I wasn’t always this...accepting. To be honest I didn’t know much about whatever this is. I’m sure Bucky told you about Dana right? I didn’t like her all that much at first” she admitted, looking sheepish

“But then , my Cathy fell ill a few years ago and I didn’t have money. My husband had just passed and things were difficult, we had no one to help us. Then that sweet bird lent me her money to buy medicine, even though it was all she had. She saved my daughters life.”

“After that I started talking to her and she explained a lot of things to me, became such good friend with my kids. Bucky had taken quite a shine to her and really, she was beautiful. And what those fat heads did to her was horrible. We had been out of town at the time and when we came back, she was gone. I still feel guilty that I couldn’t help her when she needed it the most.”

“I’m scared.” Steve admitted to her

“I know. You just remember one thing, no matter what, we’ll be here for you. I already think of you as my son, though I really hate that you can’t stay with us. If the people at the orphanage give you trouble just tell me okay, I’ll have words with them.”

Steve couldn’t help it, his emotions were all over the place that day. He hugged her tightly and she hugged him back, kissing him softly on the head.

“ I know a lot of this is different for you than it is for Cathy or me. I just want you to remember that it doesn’t make you any less of a boy. Dana once told me that she was insecure of anything that made her feel less like a girl. Do you feel the same way about some things?”

“Sometimes. But my parents always used to tell me that none of those things matter. I’ve been like this since I was five years old. I mostly try to ignore anything like that.”

She smiled “ you’re parents sound wonderful. They raised you right doll. Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes, thank you. I should probably go before they notice I’m gone.” He said

Bucky walked him back to the orphanage again

“You know I’m looking for an apartment right? Well I found one a couple of days ago. It’s quite cheap and good for two people and the best part, it’s right next to newspaper office.” Bucky said

Bucky had turned 18 and was looking to move out. He got a job taking pictures for the newspaper, so he worked in the same office as Steve.

“What are you trying to tell me?” Steve asked

“I’m asking you to move in with me dumbass. Everyone thinks you’re 17 anyway and hardly anyone would care if you move out of the orphanage. Besides, if we split the rent, it’s easier for me too.”

“You don’t have to look out for me all the time Buck. I can take care of my self.”

Bucky stopped walking abruptly and Steve crashed into him

“Hey! What the-“

“The thing is, you don’t have to” Bucky said. He put his hand in Steve’s shoulder

“I’m with you till the end of the line pal.”

Steve smiled. Honestly, what had he done to deserve Bucky. He never would’ve survived this time, not even for a day, if it hadn’t been for Bucky

“I know.” He said and they kept walking.

They reached the orphanage and Bucky hugged Steve

“What was that for?” Steve asked

“Just felt like it. I’ll see you at work. Or do you wanna take the day off?” He asked

“ I don’t know. I’ll think about it.”

Bucky nodded and left

Steve walked inside and immediately realised something was wrong.

Some of the boys had found the sheets Steve had hidden.

Now one thing led to another and Steve’s secret was out.

That’s how he some how ended up in the alley behind the orphanage with two boys kicking the shit out of him.

“Admit it. You’re a freak. They should lock you in the big house.”

“Go ahead. I’m sure they’ll give you a room next to mine. You’re common sense is abnormally low after all.” Steve retorted

That got him a particularly painful kick in the ribs. He really should learn to shut up

Just when he thought he couldn’t take any more, someone pulled the boys off him

“The hell do you knuckleheads think your doing?” Bucky yelled, holding each of the boys by the scruffs of their neck.

“You can’t possibly take that freaks side.” One of them said

“That ‘freak’ is my friend and if anyone wants to get to him they gotta go through me. Now tell me, do you really wanna go through another round with me this time?” He asked, his eyes flashing dangerously

The boys paled. Everyone in and around their block had seen Bucky in the ring and no one was brave enough to go up against him.

“Thought so. Now take your salty asses and get the hell out here before I change my mind and break your faces.”

The boys practically vanished from the spot, shoving each other in their hurry to leave.

“Look at you. You’re a mess.” Bucky said, helping Steve up

“I’ve had worse.”

“You’re coming with me. I’m not letting you stay here anymore.”

“Buck-“

“No Steve. I tired of watching you get hurt like that. I can’t just stand by and do nothing”

“You didn’t do nothing.” Steve mumbled

Bucky sighed

“You had to taunt then while they were kicking you?” He asked

“You heard?”

Bucky shook his head exasperatedly

“You know what? You’ve got moxie, I’ll give you that.” He said “But if I get grey hair early cause you keep worrying me, I’m gonna kill you.”

Steve laughed, and then winced when his ribs hurt

“C’mon, let’s fix you up.” Bucky said and steered him towards his house

That was the first time Steve realised he had fallen for Bucky.

————————————————

“I want to enlist too” Steve told Bucky

“Yeah right.”

“I’m serious!”

“You’re 16”

“They think I’m 19. It doesn’t matter, I need to go.” Steve said

“Why? Why do you need this so much?” Bucky asked

Steve couldn’t tell him. But he knew he had to do this.

Three years ago, some time travelling dude appeared at there house in the middle of a Hydra attack. Steve could barely remember what he looked like but he did remember the guy showing something to his mother.

After that, his mother agreed to send him with that stranger.

Steve could still remember his fathers frantic voice as he begged Sarah not to send him away.

And his mothers tear stained face as she explained that it was the only way.

“You will do great things my love. You’re gonna help a lot of people.” She told him

After Steve woke up in 40s he didn’t think much about those words. He was too confused and angry and hurt to think much about anything really.

How could his mother just send him away like that?

But now, Steve finally understood what she had meant.

The plane with the bombs would be launched in a year. Steve had to stop that. He had to stop Hydra.

And the only way to do that was to enlist in the army. Which brings him back to..

“Absolutely not.” Bucky said

“Oh come on! I have to try.”

“Fine! But I’m warning you, they won’t take you.” He said

“I’m gonna try anyway.”

————————————————

“You got your orders?”

“Seargent James Buchanan Barnes of the 107th reporting to duty first thing tomorrow.”

Steve felt like the floor had been moved from under him.

Bucky was leaving.

He was stuck here.

This was not how it was supposed to happen.

There were a lot of things Steve was upset about. Not getting enlisted himself, being all alone after Bucky leaves, not being able to do what his mother meant for him to do.

But the thing he regretted the most was not being able to tell Bucky how he felt.

Instead, he agreed to go on a double date with a girl he already knew would be less than impressed by him.

Fan-fucking-tastic really.

———

It was extremely strange, meeting his grandfather like that.

Howard Stark was in his early 20s and was every bit of the playboy Tony had been. He even had the same confidence and charisma, the same presence that made forced everyone’s attention on them.

They even looked exactly alike.

Steve felt a wave of grief and longing crush him. With everything that had been going on and with how useless he felt, he was missing his father more and more.

Especially when the nightmares got worse.

When he was younger, he always woke up his dad every time he had a nightmare. Tony would them stay up with him, telling him stories or massaging his head or sometimes singing soft rock songs until he fell asleep.

Now, seeing Howard Stark on the stage was reminding him of all the things that had been taken from him.

He had to stop Hydra

He had to stop them from ruining his family.

So while Bucky was laughing about the flying car failure, Steve sneaked away to try his luck one more time.

———-

“You’re a punk, you know that.”

“Jerk”

“Don’t do anything stupid till I get back”

“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”

To say he did something stupid would be a serious understatement.

If Bucky found out, he was gonna be so pissed.

But Steve didn’t have a choice.

The moment Dr. Erskine introduced himself, Steve knew exactly what he had to do.

For the first time in over two years, he understood what his mother meant

He understood why he was sent here.

“Do you want to kill Nazis?” Erskine asked him

“I don’t wanna kill anybody. I just don’t like bullies. Don’t care where they’re from.” He answers truthfully

And just like that, he was enlisted

He already knewa lot about the super soldier serum of course, but he pretended not to and just went along with everything.

Boot camp was torture, but he never once gave up. Bucky was always saying he didn’t know when to quit.

Meeting Peggy Carter was the best thing about the whole ordeal.

While it was nothing compared to what he felt for Bucky, Steve had to admit he had a bit of a crush on Peggy the moment she broke Hodges nose.

He fell on that grenade without a seconds hesitation.

He saw the praise in Erskines eyes, the grudging respect in colonel Phillips and the impresses look in Peggy’s eyes.

He didn’t feel brave though

All he could think about was the explosion that changed his life and broke apart his family. He couldn’t let that happen again.

Jumping on a Grenade.

Bucky would be ecstatic right now

————————————————

Erskine visited him to explain the other effects of the serum.

Steve ended up telling him the truth.

Honestly, he didn’t know why he said it, but he just felt like the doctor was the one person who would believe in his crazy story.

He was right.

Erskine believed him.

“It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. You always did seem to know a lot about the serum already. You’re Howard Starks grandson is it?” He asked

Steve nodded.

“Well you look nothing like him. Although I can see it in the jawline. Or the fact that your both stubborn bastards.”

“I still don’t know how this works out. Do you think I can go back?” He asked

“I don’t know. But there are some conclusions we can come to. Tell me everything you know.”

“Wouldn’t that mess with the time line or something?”

“If my hypothesis is correct than no, I should not.”

So Steve told him everything. About Hydra , about schmidt and the plane, the bombings. He told him how the war ended and hydras retreat. About SHEILD and about his parents. Talking about the explosion was really hard but he forced himself to do just that.

“This green light that sent you back, it sounds a lot like the power schmidt is searching for.”

“The tesseract. That’s what it’s called. It’s real alright except the green thing is something different, though equally powerful.” Steve said

“Does schmidt get the tesseract.”

“He does. It’s terrible, the power he can get from that. His own arrogance was the only thing aunt killed him.” 

Erskine looked thoughtful for a moment

“You said the man told your mother that the world would forget a lot of things after he sends you back in time right?”

“Yeah” Steve said

“So that means you weren’t supposed to be thrown in the past in your time line. You’re not stuck in some time loop.”

“What are you- “

“What I’m saying is I think that when you travelled to the past, your present became your past, and the pas became your future. So while that timeline is erased, you still exist in it. Your somewhere in the plane between the past and the future, a lynchpin that’s holding the two timelines together.”

“I’m getting a headache”

“Get some rest, you have a procedure tomorrow.”

“What about you?” Steve asked

“I’m going to stay up all night theorizing time travel. I don’t have a procedure tomorrow.” He said, shrugging

Peggy saw his binder for the first time while he was getting ready for project rebirth.

He waited for her to say something. She didn’t say anything, she did't shy away from him either.

While he was being strapped in, he felt a soft hand clutch his arm reassuringly. Peggy nodded at him before taking her place in the stand.

The serum infusion started. It was the most painful thing he’d ever felt. And just as soon as it started, it was over.

The door opened and everything felt smaller.

Or he felt taller.

He had muscles and he could breathe better than he vet could. His voice was deeper and he felt stronger, much stronger.

But the best part was the binder that was on the ground, torn and his chest, completely flat.

He wouldn’t need a binder after this, ever again.

“I guess I really was meant to be a boy.” He told Peggy softly as she stared incredulously at his chest.

“Yes.” She whispered

Naturally, he didn’t have time to celebrate as the the hydra guy shot erskine

Steve ran after him.

————————————————

He lied on the forms, went to boot camp and signed up for a potentially fatal science experiment so he could work as a....show monkey?

What was the mayors problem?

Captain America had a nice ring to it, sure. But what on earth was with the bright circus costume.

The USO tours were bad enough, but worse were the scientists that randomly called him so they could better understand the serum and it’s limits.

He hated them.

He sat down, sketching as he escaped the disastrous show at the base. He had honestly become used to people liking him.

Then Peggy arrived and knocked some sense into him.

He heard Peggy say the 107th and almost immediately, he went into battle mode.

Bucky needed his help.

He wouldn’t give up on him.

And so he was flying behind the enemy lines with Howard and Peggy.

Steve now remembered the story his father had told him. He had to make sure something like that didn’t happen again.

Howard asked Peggy for fondue and Steve legit thought it was 40s slang for sex.

Dumbass.

He dealt with the awkward situation like any other mature person and jumped off the plane.

————

“I’m captain America. I knocked out Adolf Hitler over 200 times.”

Finding Bucky on the table, Steve was both relieved and concerned

“Bucky, you’re alive?”

“You’re tall”

He led Bucky out of the place, wanting to get him and the others out as fast as possible.

“Did it hurt?” Bucky asked him

Steve has found Bucky on an experiment table having god knows what done to him. He was staggering as they walked, clearly in pain and exhaustion and yet, he was asking if _Steve_ was hurt?

“A little”

Steve fought Redskull and he managed to escape, not before the man peeled off his mask to reveal his true visage

“That’s really gross” he yelled

“You don’t have one of those do you?” Bucky asked

Oh _hell no!_

The bridge was falling. He wouldn’t be able to make it

“Go!”

“No! Not without you.” Bucky yelled, glaring at Steve as if to say ‘you better come here alive or else’

Steve jumped....and landed safely.

They marched back to the camp, everyone alive and mostly unharmed.

“You’re late.” Peggy said

“I couldn’t call my ride” he told her, showing the broken radio. He had kept it with him for the sole purpose of showing her. Steve was cheeky like that.

“Let’s hear it for Captain America!!” Bucky yelled

Everyone cheered for him, but Steve was focused on Buckys expression

Oh boy! He was so screwed.

“An experiment? Really? Every time I think you can’t get any dumber and yet you manage to surprise me.” Bucky yelled once they were alone

“Oh cmon buck. Nothing bad happened.”

“Such a dumbass” Bucky muttered to himself and walked to the bar.

————————————————

“8 O’ clock, don’t you dare be late.” Peggy said and walked away

Steve grinned, happy with himself for not screwing it up.

“I’m invisible, I’m turning into you” Bucky exclaimed

————————————————

“You ready to follow captain America into battle?”

“Hell no. The skinny kid from Brooklyn that was too dumb to run away from a fight? I’m following him.”

————————————————

One thing led to another and before he knew it, the girl was kissing him.

He was freaking out.

Peggy saw it and Steve made an absolute fool of himself.

Then he had to go ahead and accuse her of fondue-ing with Stark.

He could single handedly take on an entire Hydra base and rescue a 1000 soldiers, but talking to a woman? Oh god!

Howard showed him the prototypes for the his sheild. Steve saw one made out of familiar metal and chose that one.

The vibranium sheild has tons of advantages but the best part was, he felt like his parents were right here with him, protecting him.

And the sheild blocked bullets perfectly well too as Peggy had so kindly demonstrated.

————————————————

They fought together, side by side and blew up every Hydra base they came across.

The howling Commandos, that’s what they were calling themselves. In a short time, they became a force to be reckoned with.

Tony had spent months analysing Plans of secret hydra bases and Steve often joined him. Now he knew exactly where each base was and their importance’s.

Schmidt was probably going crazy

As the day of the bombing came increasingly close, Steve was growing more and more restless.

Bucky notices of course and wouldn’t stop asking until Steve told him.

So Steve told him everything.

Every.thing.

“So you’re from the future?”

“Yup.”

“Howard’s grandson?”

“Uh huh.”

Bucky was silent for a while. Then he asked

“Does Howard ever manage to make that flying car?”

“Seriously? That’s all you have to say?”

“What else should I say?”

“You believe me?” Steve asked

“Yeah. I mean it’s crazy but after everything else that happened, maybe time travel isn’t the craziest thing I’ve heard. And honestly, it makes sense.”

“What?”

“I mean look at you. You just mysteriously appear out of nowhere, seemed so out of place. You use words that made no sense and couldn’t understand some of things I said. You knew exactly how Bambi ended like you’d watched it a thousand times even though it was released that day. Even now, the hydra bases and weak points they had, that’s not something you understand from a short glimpse of a map. So yeah, I believe you.”

“Thank god.” Steve said, sighing in relief. Telling Bucky felt like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders.

“Tell me something about the future.”

“What?”

“Anything.”

So Steve told him random facts, unimportant but extremely different and strange for this time.

“Wait. In the future, would we be arrested if I kissed you.” Bucky asked

Steve froze, his breath hitched and heart started racing.

Bucky looked at him calmly, waiting for his response.

“No. It’s legal in the future. There are rights and people could get married in some states like New York.”

“Hmm. Then let’s pretend, for now, that it’s the future.” He said and leaned forward, cupping Steve’s face

Steve almost didn’t know what to do. But as Bucky presses his lips to his, Steve closed his eyes and kissed back.

It was soft and sweet, until Steve started kissing Bucky harder and more fervently, trying to put all his emotions into that one kiss.

Bucky responded enthusiastically.

Bucky slept in Steve’s bed that night. All they did was cuddle but Steve had never been happier.

————————————————-

“STEVE!!!”

“Bucky! Grab my hand.”

Steve felt like he was drowning. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move or think.

Bucky was dead.

He couldn’t save him.

Peggy said something about honoring his sacrifice, but Steve only half listened to her words.

After the grief came the anger. A rage the likes that Steve has never felt before had consumed him.

He lost his parents, his home, his life and now he lost the one reason he had to stay alive.

What more could he possibly give?

After everything he had done and been through, Steve sometimes forgot that he was still 16. Sure he’d be 17 in a couple of months but that didn’t change anything.

No one should have to go through what he did, especially not someone that young.

They attacked Schmidt and Steve knew what he’d have to do to stop him. Had known it since the beginning of the mission.

Colonel Phillips and Peggy gave him a ride to the plane.

Peggy kissed him, just before he got on. He was unresponsive and in that moment, Peggy seemed to realise who his heart belonged too.

She smiled, her eyes filled with love and understanding and Steve’s heart ached to leave her behind.

They could’ve been friends. Great friends. But Steve knew he wasn’t coming back.

————————————————

He fought with red skull.

The man arrogantly picked up the cube and he was shot out of the plane. The tesseract melted right through floor and fell into the ocean.

He got behind the controls and radioed the base.

Peggy answered. 

“I gotta put her in the water.”

Steve took out the compass with Peggy’s picture. Since this whole thing began, Peggy had been the one point him in the right direction, guiding him when he was lost or felt too low.

He wasn’t in love with her, but he still loved her. And leaving her behind the was the hardest thing he had to do.

At least he’d see Bucky again.

Peggy knew what would happen, Steve knew what would happen.

He asked her about the dance, she warned him not to be late.

Till the last minute they planned a dance they could never have.

————————————————-

Drowning......cold.....dark.....

And then nothing.

———————————————-

He woke up to the radio announcing a dodgers match from 43 and he knew something was wrong.

He shouldn’t be awake.

He was dead right?

The minute he saw the woman pressing the button he ran.

The whole thing deemed of Hydra.

He burst right through the wall and into the sleek fancy office.

He ran past them and came outside

He was in New York. His New York.

The New York skyline with tall sky scrapers and the bustling traffic and people waltzing through Times Square.

He was home.

He wanted to sob in relief and exhaustion.

His dad. He could see his father again.

He needed to find his father. He tasted running again with renewed purpose, only to be stopped by a bunch of agents with guns.

A man with a black eye patch stepped out.

Nick Fury!

Only, Fury didn’t seem to remember him

“You’ve been asleep captain, for almost 70 years.”

Steve almost laughed. He was back in his time, yet they didn’t know who he was.

Oh god! Did his father remember him? What if he was completely erased from this time? Fury didn’t remember him so maybe his father didn’t either.

Fury must’ve mistakes his panic for something else.

He wanted to tell him who he was.

He wanted to ask about his father.

He wanted to ask about so many things but couldn’t.

Instead, he said the only thing his befuddled mind could supply

“I had a date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will have the reunion....yay


	4. Territorial pissings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally, the dad and son reunion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys like this chapter. Please share your opinions in the comments
> 
> Wow this whole thing is almost coming to an end  
> So excited to finish this

It was through sheer will power that Tony made it out of the building while maintaining his composure.

Seeing his son like that had opened a floodgate of emotions in him.

Steve was alive!!

And he was Captain America.

The legendary super soldier from the 40s was his son.

Tony was getting an aneurysm.

Happy had looked at him incredulously when Tony gave him the keys and sat in the back. Well Tony was definitely not in the state to drive.

Instead he spent the entire ride to the tower speculating various possibilities.

Since the day of the explosion, Tony kept having flashbacks of memories that weren’t his.

Now, he had a different theory.

As soon as they reached the tower, Tony reached the lab and started running the computer.

“Jarvis, show me the footage of the explosion.”

“Sir you agreed that it was toxic to keep viewing that, it’s been over five years since you last-“

“Open footage. Now”

“As you wish sir.”

Tony watched each clip of the footage again, carefully. This time though,he didn’t focus on Steve. He wanted to know if a particular memory was real.

The video started.

Sarah walked into the living room and almost tripped on a school bag

“ _Steve! How many times have I told you to keep your stuff in your room?”_

 _“Sorry mom. I’ll move it in a minute_ ” Steve’s voice comes from the kitchen

Sarah opens her mouth to say something but stops and looks around, like she heard something.

After that, the video glitches for a second. Then there’s a scream and a crash before the screen goes blank.

And then, he saw it, a single frame before the explosion.The video kept glitching and there was smoke, but Tony saw the tall figure.

He paused the video and watched it again, frame by frame.

Tony strained his eyes to see the image clearly

The man was standing in front of Sarah, who was shielding Steve with her body. He appeared to have his hand on her forehead.

Suddenly, Tony could remember. He had been talking to Sarah on the phone, she was apologising, telling him that it was the only way. He had been- had been begging her not to do something.

The man had been about to take Steve away. Sarah had let him.

The explosion was not an accident. They had been attacked. By- by Hydra?

A flash of green light and- and Steve screaming just before the explosion.

Steve had been sent back in time.

That was the only logical explanation to this whole mess.

Tony spent hours coming up with more theories and trying to research time travel, the super soldier serum and hydra. He also tried to get a facial recognition scan on the man responsible for this whole thing.

But the smoke was too thick and it didn’t work.

He did notice something else though. There was at least ten minutes of footage missing from the feed. It must’ve had the video of the man, but the time travel had erased it.

Meanwhile, Tony kept remembering things he didn’t know before. They were little things, not too significant on a whole but strange nonetheless.

“JARVIS, when was the last time the government updated the files on Captain America.”

“The government database shows that the files on Captain Rogers were updated six years ago in February.”

The same time as the explosion. Huh.

Tony then realised a lot of things had changed on that exact same day.

The oldest records on the exhibit at the museum was six years ago.

The computer had glitched when Tony was going through president Ellis’ campaign and Tony could’ve sworn he remembered reading an article about the assassination of the president, though he couldn’t find it anymore.

The most important, perhaps is the report on the plane carrying the bombs.

If it hadn’t been for Steve, those bombs would’ve hit over 20 major cities in The US. The result would have been catastrophic ranging from mass destruction to radiation poisoning, loss of economy and much more.

The painting Sarah had done of the two of them in Central Park.

His son had sacrificed himself to save millions of people.

Pepper and Rhodey found him in the lab, obsessively researching everything he could.

“I was right.” He said as a way of greeting “He’s alive.”

He told them what had happened, and everything he had hypothesised.

“Steve was sent back in time and he became Captain America, and now they found him frozen in the ice 70 years later.” Rhodey summarised like he was trying to make sense of what he just said

Tony couldn’t help it, he laughed.

“Don’t stress yourself honeybun. This is all clearly beyond you’re understanding.”

“How is he now? Did you talk to him?” Pepper asked

“No. He’s still unconscious. I didn’t tell anyone about this though, Fury still thinks Steve is actually from the 40s. The agents were discussing ways to break the news to him slowly.”

“Will you meet him when he wakes up?” Rhodey asked

‘Of course’ tony wanted to say. But he knew that would be hard.

Steve had obviously been through a lot, Tony had no idea how the time travel affected him. Did he even remember Tony?

“We have to be careful about this. I can’t risk anyone else finding out the truth until I talk to Steve first. And I can’t do that without Fury getting suspicious. We have to wait for the right time”

“This must be killing you man, having him so close and yet so far.” Rhodey said. Tony could see the longing and hope in Rhodeys eyes. Steve had been like a son to Rhodey as well.

Tony stepped forward and hugged his best friend.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.” Rhodey said

“It’s not your fault. We couldn’t have found him anyway, he was not in this time to begin with.”

After Rhodey left, Pepper and Tony stared at each other, not knowing what to say.

“All the installations are almost done. If you complete the last step the tower will be ready to be hooked to the reactor.” Pepper said

“Yeah- I- of course. I’ll get to that.”

“Tony?” She said just before leaving “I’d like to meet him sometime. Once you figure out this mess I mean.”

“Really? You’d like that?” Tony asked

“Of course. Though I really hope he’ll like me.” She said

“I’m sure he will.”

Tony wasn’t entirely sure about the last part. The last time Steve was with his family, both his parents were married and happy together. Now his mother was dead and his father had moved on with someone new. That might be a little bit of a problem. But tony was still optimistic.

————————————————

A week later, Tony got a call that Steve had woken up....two days ago.

“He tried to escape but we managed to round him up. He gave us the slip today though, wrote a note saying he’d be back by five o’ clock in the evening. We can’t find him.” Agent Coulson told Tony over the phone

Tony should’ve known trusting shield was a stupid idea. He should’ve done something to bring Steve home with him. And now he was lost, and they couldn’t even find him.

“Don’t you have access to security feed?” Tony asked, even as he signaled JARVIS to run a search for Steve.

“Of course we do. But when he realised we were watching, he managed to find blind spots and we couldn’t find him since. The last security feed we have was outside a Starbucks in 1585 broadway.”

Tony pulled up the feed and his breath hitches when he saw Steve.

It was one thing to see him on the bed and know he was alive, it was a totally different thing seeing him walking and talking to the people around him. Tony could finally believe that it was real.

Steve was talking to some old lady, giving her directions maybe, when he seemed to have spotted the security camera in front him.

He walked forward and cocked his head contemplatively.

It was a cute expression but Tony knew exactly what that meant.

He was planning something.

Suddenly, Steve smirked up at the camera and with a little wave, he walked under it, out of its cone of vision. After that, not a single camera could catch even a glimpse of him.

Tony was both proud and irritated .

He was just about to put on the suit so he could go searching for his son himself when he got a call again

“He came back. Seems fine but won’t tell us where he’s been.” Agent Coulson told him

They didn’t know, but Tony was beginning to have an idea of where Steve could’ve been. His suspicion was proved right when he arrived at the grave site.

Lavenders from the grove were placed in front of Sarah’s grave.

At least Tony now knew that Steve remembered his life before. He remembered Tony. But why wasn’t he asking for him?

He turned towards the other headstone, only to see it was completely destroyed.

It looked like someone had crashed into it with a tank.

Or, like a super soldier had punched it with his bare arms.

Tony saw the faint drops of blood on the broken remains of the headstone and felt his concern growing.

He really wished he could talk to his son.

Tony realised later that the drawing was gone.

Steve definitely remembered his family.

————————————————

Steve had been feeling restless, all cooped up in the room that shield had given him.

Two days since he woke up and already he was bored with pretending to be completely in awe with everything around him.

The Agents were trying to slowly teach him technology and educate him on the modern advancements, not realising that Steve had already hacked into their databases three times since morning.

They kept reconfiguring their codes and passwords, not suspecting the good ol’captain.

It was hilarious at first, but it got old real fast.

He was catching up on the Internet of course, and the six years worth of news he’d missed.

Not to mention, he had to find out if his efforts during the war had payed off at all.

So far his time travelling stunt had prevented the bombing, the assassination of the president, hydra was not still operating, and the tesseract was not lost.

He had been too scared to search for his fathers name. But when he found a file labelled ‘Tony Stark’, he couldn’t resist. Why would a spy organisation be interested in his father?

He was not ready for what he found.

He read about Afghanistan and the kidnapping. How his father escaped from captivity by building a suit of armour. He read about Iron Man and all the things his father had done, the lives he had saved.

Steve had to admit, he was proud of him.

But the irony of the whole thing, both father and son were separated from each other and they went on to become superheroes instead.

They both were equally brave and selfless...or equally stupid. Whatever.

Steve ached to see his father again.

But the fear was still there. If his father didn’t recognise him, Steve would go crazy.

Staying inside was messing with his mind. So, he decided to go out and see all the changes himself. He wrote a note, overrode the security codes, and snuck out.

Everything had changed so much, and yet it was all still the same.

The city seemed bigger and there weren’t any ruins or toxic materials.

But something’s were still the same. The streets he used to roam as a child hadn’t changed. The cafe his mother took him to was still there. The little playground, with the dented slides, still there. Even his school. He caught glimpses of his old teachers as they moved across the parking lot.

He wondered if they remembered him.

It occurred to him that shield was probably trying to find him, and they would definitely use the security cameras. So he waved at the one in front of him and then evaded the rest.

He was Tony Starks son after all.

As he walked through the streets of Brooklyn, his breath hitches when he came across it.

It was his apartment, the one he and Bucky had lived in before the war.

The building looked renovated and had changed a lot but it was the same building. Steve went to the floor with his apartment and almost knocked on the door, but decided against it at the last minute.

“Are you looking for my grandma?” Someone asked behind him

Steve turned around to see a little boy, maybe 10 years old, standing behind him.

“I..um. No. I was just...leaving.” Steve stammered before walking away. Just then, the door to the apartment opened and an old lady stepped out

“James! Come here darling, it’s been too long since you last visited.” The old lady, oblivious to Steve standing next to her, hugged the boy and kissed his cheek.

She was older, much older, and looked nothing like before but Steve recognised her.

“Cathy?” He said, before he could stop himself

She turned around. At first she didn’t seem to recognise him, but once she did her eyes widened with shock.

“Steve? But how? You were- you were dead! I read that news 70 years ago. How?...” she asked, looking him up and down

“I don’t know? The serum kept me alive I guess, preserved in the ice. I never thought I’d see you again Cath.” He said

Cathy came forward and hugged him, tears streaming down her face

“I missed you so much, we all did. After Bucky...we never thought we’d loose you too. Oh Steve!”

“I’m so sorry Cathy. I’m sorry. I’ve missed you too.”

When she finally pulled back, she immediately ushered Steve inside

“I see you’ve met my grandson, James. He’s ten years old and already decided he wants to join the army, just like his great uncle and Captain America.” She told him, while James smiled shyly. The boy didn’t know who Steve was of course. He was named after Bucky. Steve smiled slightly when he imagined Bucky’s reaction to that

“How are you Cathy? And how’s Lizzy and Ma?”

“Well, ma passed 20 years ago. Lizzy had a- a heart attack last year and...” Cathy sighed, looking away

“I’m sorry.” Steve said as a new wave of grief crushed him

“Don’t be. She lived a good life. We both did. After the war ended we both got good jobs. Lizzy went travelling, and I met someone” she said pointing to her wedding band.”

“Tell me more.” Steve said

They talked for a few more hours before Steve decided it was getting late. Besides, he had one more stop before he went back to the triskelion.

After saying good bye to Cathy and James and promising to meet again, Steve walked out of the door.

“Hey Cathy?” Steve called just before he stepped out, “don’t tell anyone about me ok? No one knows yet and...”

“Don’t worry Stevie. Your secrets safe with me.”

Steve smiled at the old nickname and with one last look at his old home, he walked away.

\-------------

Finding the cabin was not hard, he knew the place like the back of his hand. But there was nothing left in that place to find.

The cabin had been completely blown apart and all that was left now was the scorched ground.

Someone must’ve cleaned up the mess because the land was empty with wild flowers and weeds growing in place of the house.

A little distance from the cabin, Steve found the graves.

He knew she was gone of course, but he had a little hope that maybe, just maybe the time travel would’ve changed it. That she’d still be alive.

But the truth was right in front of him.

He read the Shakespeare quote and almost laughed. He could imagine what she would say about this whole mess. She wouldn’t tell him that everything would be alright, but she would say that he would never have to go through it alone.

He just wished she really was here to tell him that, because he was going through going through it all alone.

Seeing his grave did nothing to improve his mood.

~In my hearts the memory and there you’ll always be~

Except, it didn’t look like anyone remembered him.

Steve Rogers Stark has ceased to exist six years ago and all there was left was Captain America.

He didn’t think, he just started punching and kicking the headstone till it was nothing more than a pile of rubble.

“I’m.Not _.Dead_ ” he kept yelling as he threw all the rage and hurt and resentment he’d been carrying around for three years.

He stopped abruptly when he heard the crack of glass.

He kneeled down andshifted the rubble, ignoring the blood on his knuckles, and found the frame.

The glass was cracked and mostly broken but the drawing was intact.

He remembered that day of course. After his mom started painting again and his dad had taken over SI, family dinners had become far and few between. That day, Steve had been so excited to spend the entire day with his dad doing something good for his mom. It was the last time they had a dinner like that before the hydra threat came up and everything was tense and his parents became increasingly paranoid.

He stared at the drawing for a few minutes, removing it from the broken frame.

He then clutched it tightly to his chest as sobs wracked his whole body. His sobs became louder and in a few seconds, he crying and screaming as all the grief he refused to acknowledge after his mother’s death finally resurfaced.

He cried and screamed and made heartbroken, wounded sounds until his throat was hoarse and raw.

Finally, he calmed down and wiped his face of the tears and snot before standing up.

The watch said 4:14 pm, he’d better get back before they sent the entire government looking for him.

He folded the drawing and put it inside his jacket.

Before leaving, he plucked a few lavenders from the grove. His mom had loved these flowers. So he bunched then together with a piece of twine and walked back to her grave

“I love you mom. And I miss you so much. I promise I won’t give up, no matter what happens next.” Laying the flowers in front of her grave, Steve turned around and walked away, feeling hopeful for the first time since he woke up.

His father remembered him, he thought as he felt the paper in his jacket.

His hope was crushed after he arrived at the SHIELD office.

“You’re back! Oh thank god. We almost had Iron Man deployed to search for you.” One of the agents, Sitwell?, said

“Iron Man? Tony Stark right? He knows about me?”

“Oh yeah! He’s Howard Starks son. You knew Howard Stark right? Well we thought Stark should be able to help us with you. We called him the minute we found you.” He said

“Did he see me?” Steve asked, his heart beating so loud he was sure everyone could hear

“Yeah. You were unconscious at the time so you don’t remember. Seemed really surprised to see you. I gotta admit that man is not your greatest fan...”

Sitwell continued to say something but Steve could barely register his words.

His father knew he was alive. He must’ve realised what had happened. By now Tony should’ve figured out the whole time travel fiasco.

Then why hadn’t he come to see him again?

Was he ignoring him?

What had changed in the past six years?

Was he no longer Steve’s dad?

Steve quietly went to his room and locked himself in, refusing to talk to anyone.

That night, Steve almost woke up screaming from the nightmares.

After that, he stopped falling asleep

Steve spent the next few days in the gym, punching bag after bag late into the night, dealing with his emotions the only way he knew how.

Then, a week after he woke up, Nick Fury came to him with a mission.

————————————————

For the love of god! For once in his life Tony wished he could celebrate something without being interrupted.

The tower had just been finished and was ready to launch. Tony wanted to celebrate that with Pepper.

It had been a while since the two of them had a date. Besides, once Tony got to meet Steve he would no doubt be busy with his son for a while.

But of fucking course shield had work for him.

He tried to stop agent from coming in but naturally, the man got in.

“Hey Phil!”

“His names not Phil. It’s agent.”

“We need your help Stark.”

When did they not

Pepper took the file from Phil and handed it to Tony,

“You’ve got homework” she said

He sighed harshly, and opened up the holograms showing the contents of the mission.

The avengers initiative, finally falling into place. A threat so big they needed a bunch of people with special abilities to stop it.

Natasha Romanoff was there, and Bruce Banner, the hulk?, amazing scientist, good choice. Some guy called Thor, a Norse god apparently. Tony had read his file and he honestly didn’t think anything could surprise him at this point.

Boy was he wrong

“Captain America? Why is he being involved in this?” Tony asked Phil

“Didn’t he wake up like a week ago?” Pepper added

Phil sighed “ we know it’s not wise or fair, but right now we’re at war. Or we will be. And with a threat so big, who better to defend us than the original superhero himself?” He said

“Maybe if you’re done fan boying over him you’d realise just how dumb this is”

Phil gave him an unimpressed look

“Just do the work stark.” He said

“I’m gonna catch a jet to DC tonight.” Pepper told him

“You don’t have to “

“You’ve got homework. Lots of homework.”

“What if I didn’t”

“You mean when you’ve completed? Well in that case “ Pepper leaned forward and whispered a very convincing promise

“Ok square deal. Fly safe”

“And Tony? Remember to be patient with him.” She said lowly, so only he could here

Tony nodded as he watched Pepper leave with Coulson

He started reading the file about the tesseract and Loki, his scepter and the mind control spell he put on Barton and Selvig.

But he could barely process anything as his mind kept coming back to Steve.

He would be face to face with his son for the first time in six years and they’re stuck in the middle of a world ending crisis.

How convenient.

After a while, Tony started reading the reports shield had on Steve(of course he had hacked them)

Since he woke up after 70 years, Steve seemed to be having trouble eating and sleeping.

It would take his stomach a while to adjust, even with the serum.

And the lack of sleep...nightmares. Of course. His obvious ptsd is something Tony has to think about. Steve needed to talk to someone, though according to his files he had adamantly refused a shrink.

Shield knew that he was Trans. Apparently, the serum had done in one shot what would have required years of testosterone shots and surgeries.

At least one good thing seemed to have happened in this whole thing then.

He was spending an abnormally long time in the gym, punching bag after bag, completely decimating them.

Tony remembered the destroyed headstone and felt concerned again.

Deciding he’d put his actual work aside for long enough, Tony closed the files on Steve and started reading up thermonuclear astrophysics.

Good times.

————————————————-

Steve thought Phil Coulson was nice enough, but he couldn’t help but feel weirded out by the hero worshiping.

Instead, he started reading about all the other people on this mission.

“This Dr. Banner tried to replicate the super soldier serum using gamma radiation?”

He knew Dr Banner of course. In his time, the scientist had still tried to study the serum but hadn’t actually tried it on himself. Back then, the only test subject wasn’t an actual success. This time was different though and Steve felt a twinge of guilt when he saw Dr.Banner turn into a raging green monster in the video.

Phil spent a few more minutes gushing about him and told him about the captain America trading cards.

Then Steve asked about the mission and his role in it.

The entire time he tried not to think about the other person involved in this whole thing.

He was going to see his father.

the helicarrier landed and Steve met Natasha Romanoff for the first time. He was almost immediately impressed by her and felt a pang when he realised who she reminded him of. Except, Natasha was different from Peggy in so many ways. Where Peggy was straightforward and the kind of person that tended to stand out, Natasha was closed off and mysterious, easily blending into the surroundings.

He then met Dr.Banner and the three of them watched as the ship took to the sky.

He gave Nick Fury the ten dollars.

Steve knew he had to pretend that he was from the 40s. No one knew the truth yet. But did he have to wear the ridiculous vintage clothes?

He would kill for a pair of jeans and a hoodie now.

He asked Phil about the cards and if he would like them signed. It just felt like a nice thing to do and Phil looked so excited when he mentioned it.

They were interrupted when the facial recognition scan got a match on Loki and Steve was now headed to Germany to face yet another crazy maniac who thought he was better than everybody and wanted the power of the goddamn cube.

He really hated that cube.

When they arrived at the place, Loki was standing in front of a crowd, forcing people to kneel. Then he got bitchy when an old man refused to bow to him. Steve stepped in just before he could shoot the old man with his sceptre.

For all the hype that fury had given about Loki, the guy turned out to be nothing more than a glorified drama queen. Or so he thought, until he realised how powerful Loki really was.

Steve made some smart ass remark to the guy which only served to annoy him even more.

“You will bow to me”

“Not today!”

Steve was just thinking that maybe Loki was a bit too much for him to handle alone when he heard it.

The familiar beats of AC/DC blasted through the helicarrier and Steve knew his father was here.

Among the myriad of emotions, the strongest was the relief he felt. His father was here and he would know what to do.

Steve felt irritated at himself for still thinking like a thirteen year old.

He looked up and saw his father in the red and gold suit of armour flying across the sky and landing onhis knee before getting up and blasting Loki with repulsors.

“Your move reindeer games”

Loki maybe a full tilt diva but no one could top his father in that game.

Loki’s ridiculous armour/Halloween costume disappeared and he raised his hands in surrender

Steve looked at his father, who face plate was still up so he couldn’t actually see him. 

He didn’t know what to say

Behind that armour was the only person he had left.

He wanted nothing more than to hug his dad tightly and never let go

“Mr.stark” he said instead

“Captain” his father greeted. Steve felt his stomach sinking at the apathetic response.

The doubts crept up again.

His father was not his father anymore.

Steve felt like screaming, or grabbing his father and shaking him , begging him to acknowledge him.

Instead he carefully escorted Loki to the ship.

————————————————

Tony wanted to kick himself.

The minute he saw Steve fighting Loki, he went into overprotective parent mode and blasted Loki, a little harder than necessary.

Then Steve called him ‘Mr.Stark’ and Tony honestly didn’t know how to respond to that.

‘Captain ‘ he said, barely sparing his son a look

He didn’t quite miss the look of disappointment on Steve’s face though.

He seriously didn’t know how to deal with this situation.

Inside the Helicarrier, he stood next to Steve. He wanted to talk to him, tell him he missed him. Hug him and never let him go.

“I don’t like it.” Steve said, not giving Tony a chance to say what he wanted to say

Instead they discussed Loki’s strategy and Tony made some stupid joke about Steve missing a lot of things in this time and called him a capsicle.

Steve’s expression hardened, his eyes flashing with anger and hurt

Tony really needed to keep his mouth shut.

“I didn’t know Fury was calling you in.” He said

“I didn’t know he was calling you either.” The irritation evident in Tony’s voice. Only it was directed at Fury, not his son

A horrible thought occurred to Tony.

The way Steve was looking at him, the hurt and doubt and anger, he probably thought Tony didn’t remember him.

And Tony’s jokes were not making it easier.

He opened his mouth to make it clear that he remembered him, that he knew Steve was his son.

But the thunder interrupted him.

“What, You afraid of a little lightning?” Steve snarked at Loki

“I’m not overly fond of what follows.”

Thor, the guys brother arrived and snatched Loki

Tony jumped out of he plane behind them after making yet another dumb joke.

He fought Thor and ended up destroying half the forest.

Fantastic!

Steve arrived and broke up the fight and tony had to suppress the urge to laugh

How many fights had he pulled that kid away from fight? And now he was here telling Tony to behave.

Then Steve fought Thor and proceeded to destroy the rest of the forest. Now that sounded like his Steve.

They captured Loki again and led him to the helicarier, while Tony flew behind them.

He was going to clear Steve’s doubts the first chance he got, who cares if anyone else saw, consequences be damned.

————————————————

Steve tried not to think about his father or anything else that might sour his already bad mood.

Instead he tried to focus on the mission at hand.

They all listened to Loki taunting Fury and talking about true power and a load of other crap.

He’d heard enough of these ‘I’m better than you therefore I shall conquer everyone ‘ speeches to last a lifetime.

Maybe for once super villains could at least try to be creative, he was getting bored of this routine.

“Thor, what’s Loki’s play?”

“He has an army called the Chittauri....”

“An army from outer space.” How wonderful. Just swell

They started discussing various theories about how Loki would use the cube and what he could do with it, when his father entered, quickly spewing various ideas and coming to conclusions

“He can keep the portal wide and open for as long as he wants.”

Steve watched him run his hands along he computers, correcting mistakes and very subtly placing a bug.

Then he covered one eye to imitate Fury

“How does he look like this.”

“He turns”

“Sounds exhausting.”

How could his father show such brilliance in one second and then act like a complete clown the very next, Steve wouldn’t understand.

When Steve was younger, his dads jokes had been the highlights of his day. Between the two of them, they had enough sass to fill an ocean. Sarah was always complaining that they drove her insane.

Now though, he was finding Tony’s jokes to be annoying. And Steve knew it was his own bad mood he had to blame.

Tony immediately began launching into a bunch of other theories and conclusions with Dr. Banner

“Finally someone who speaks English.”

“Is that what’s happening?” Steve asked

No one else saw but Tony winked at him. That was the first time Tony had looked at him since entering the room. Steve really wished he could tell what was going on in his dads mind.

Fury came in, discussing the sceptre and what Loki could do with it.

He made some wizards of oz reference and Steve immediately proclaimed that he understood.

He couldn’t help it. Back in the 40s, Steve understood none of the pop culture references of that time. So the first time someone made a wizards of oz reference, Steve practically exploded in excitement

This had just reminded him of that

“I do. Understand that reference.” He said, and immediately looked at tony to see his reaction

His smile disappeared when he saw tony rolling his eyes and he turned back towards Fury.

Too bad he missed the fond smile Tony had given him a second after he looked away

“Shall we play, doctor?” Tony asked Banner

“Yes. After you.”

“There’s just one thing I have to do before that. I need to talk to him alone.” He said, nodding at Steve

Steve was shocked and confused. He wanted to talk to him?

“Stark I know you aren’t fond of the captain but whatever it is..” Fury started

“Ok, you know what Nicky, I’m going to rephrase that sentence. I need to talk to my son”

This time, Steve’s shock was plainly written on his face, and so was everyone else’s

The others were looking around like they expected to find someone else on board.

His entire life, Tony had never once called him his son in public.

Steve had no idea how to react to that.

So he remained seated

“Who are you talking about?” Maria hill asked

“My son, Steve. The six foot tall, blonde, puppy sitting right there.” Tony answered calmly

“Is this some kind of a joke” an agent, the one who had been playing galaga asked

“Of course not. This is such a stupid thing to joke about.”

“How can he be your son”

“Can’t believe that the icon of justice and patriotism is my son.”

“We can’t believe that a man born in the 20s is your son”

“He was born in 1993. His name is Steven Rogers Stark. Steve will you please tell them?”

Steve was broken from his shock and he stood up, facing his father

“Hey dad.” He said softly , but loud enough that everyone could hear

Before he knew it, Tony was hugging him.

He wanted to pull back, to stay angry at his father for not coming earlier, for not doing more, and for so many other things

“I’ve missed you piccolo.” Tony whispered in his ear and the fight left Steve’s body and within a second, he was hugging him back. He didn’t want to let go, afraid that his dad would disappear if he did and this would all turn out to be a dream.

Steve would go crazy if that happened.

When they pulled back, Tony cupped the side of Steve’s face and kissed his fore head.

“You’re so tall now. I had to stand on my toes to do that.”

Steve chuckled” I guess you gotta come up with a new nickname now.”

“Nonsense. You could grow an extra three feet and gain another 100 pounds of muscle but you’d still be my piccolino.”

Steve smiled at Tony, feeling like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders

“You remember me”

“How could I not?”

“This still doesn’t explain anything.” Fury’s voice boomed

Tony sighed

“It’s a very long story. But in a nutshell, Steve’s my son, six years ago our house was attacked, to save Steve my wife let some wizard send Steve back in time, he landed in the 40s and became captain America. End of story.”

That opened up a floodgate of questions

“Time travel? What the hell?”

“You were married?”

“This is impossible.”

“What wizard?”

“For real, you were _married?_ ”

“Enough!” Steve yelled

Everyone became quite at once

“I know it’s very confusing but I’ll explain everything in if you will please be quiet.” Steve said

Once everyone quieted down, Steve launched into the full story.

Since he was the only one who remembered, he told them all about the past before the time travel and everything that changed

He told them about the strange guy and the green stone thing that looked a lot like the tesseract

“You knew about the bombs on the plane, yet you got in?” Phil asked

“Well Yeah, I had to do something about it.” Steve said, frowning like it was the most obvious thing on earth

Phil, if anything, was now an even bigger fan of Captain America 

“One more question. You were the one hacking into our database weren’t you?” Coulson asked

Steve suppressed the urge to laugh, they got their answer though

“Really? You were the one who kept playing the Macarena during debriefing time?” Hill asked

“I was bored.”Steve said, shrugging

“You changed my username to captain sourpatch?” Fury asked

Tony snorted,Natasha and Bruce smirked while Thor laughed loudly

“You wouldn’t let me leave. I was annoyed.” Steve answered in a deadpan

Everyone else looked really confused. The legendary Captain America was a prankster?

Oh boy if they knew the trouble Steve used to get into.

Fury shook his head in exasperation.

“You’re Stark's kid alright. I believe you.”

“Told you.” Tony said proudly

“Now everybody, quit standing around and make yourselves useful.” Fury yelled

Begrudgingly, everyone went back to work

Steve turned to Tony

“How did you know about the time travel? And the guy that sent me back?”

“I didn’t know at first. I thought you were dead. But then shield called and when I saw you on that bed, memories I never had before started resurfacing and one thing led to another and I got the whole story.”

Steve nodded

“You’ve got work to do. I’ll see you later.” He said and walked out of the room with Natasha

Tony stood there, dumbfounded. He really thought he’d get to spend more time with Steve, but his son seemed to be avoiding him.

What was going on in his mind?

He shook his head and went to the lab with Dr. banner.

Steve was right, they did have more pressing matters to deal with.

He’d get time to talk to Steve later,Right?

Of course he would, he assured himself.

Then why couldn’t be shake the feeling that things would only get messier before they got better?

————————————————

“Something’s bothering you.” Natasha states as they walked outside the room

“What makes you think that?” Steve asked nonchalantly

“I’m a spy. Reading people is kinda my thing.”

Steve sighed. “The whole thing is bothering me. Aren’t you worried?”

“About Loki? Yeah. I don’t trust the guy. There’s something in here he wants, that’s why he came so willingly.”

“Exactly” Steve exclaimed “we’ve gotta find out what.”

“We do. But that’s not the only thing you’re worried about are you?” She asked

Steve flexed his jaw, remaining silent

“You know I worked with him undercover a couple of years ago. At that time I thought I understood him. Now that Ive found out about all of this, I’m not so sure.”

Undercover huh? This wasn’t in the files

“Why were you working for him?” Steve asked

She told him the whole story.

His dad had almost died of palladium poisoning before he rediscovered a freakin element and saved himself.

He had been this close to losing his father.

And Hammer was a fucking idiot, glad to know that didn’t change.

“Who’s Pepper?”

Natasha looked surprised

“She’s the CEO of SI and your fathers girlfriend. From what I’ve noticed, Pepper was one of the few people who stuck by Tony and was there for him in the lowest of times.”

Steve nodded. He was happy his father had found someone, had moved on. But he couldn’t help but feel a little resentful that Tony had moved on from him too.

It was unfair to think that way,Steve knew that. His father didn’t search for him because he thought he was dead. Not because he had abandoned him.

But rational thinking didn’t seem to work right now.

“I need to go.” Natasha said and walked away, shooting a concerned look at him over her shoulder.

Steve felt completely useless

Everyone on the ship had a purpose. Even Thor was busy answering questions about Loki and Asgardian magic and whatever he knew about the chitauri.

Steve on the other hand, had nothing to do. He couldn’t exactly punch his way through this one.

For the first time, Steve actually felt himself missing the war. The howling commandos and their easy camaraderie, the camps and drills, Peggy and Howard and....and Bucky.

He really missed Bucky.

Steve went to the lab where his father and Banner were working.

“Are you nuts?” He exclaimed when Tony poked Bruce

“Jury’s out. You really have a lid on it what’s your secret?”

“Is everything a joke to you?”

“Funny things are”

“Threatening the safety of everyone on board isn’t funny. No offence doc.”

“It’s okay...”

Tony looked at Steve appraisingly

“Since when did you follow orders without questioning them?” He asked

“Since I got thrown into a war that wasn’t mine.” Steve said

For the first time, Tony caught a glimpse of the anger that Steve had buried in him.

It made sense, he was angry. Resentful at being forced to play a role he didn’t ask for and take up so much responsibility.

“Why did Fury call us in? Why now? Why not before? What isn’t he telling us?”

“You think he’s keeping something secret?”

“He’s a spy son. He’s the spy, his secrets have secrets. Bruce tell him.”

“Doctor?”

“A warm light for all mankind ? I think that was for you Tony. Stark tower.” Bruce said

“Stark Tower? That big ugly..” Steve trailed off when he saw his fathers expression “building in the city.”

“What he’s saying is I’m kinda the only name in clean energy right now.” Tony said

“Exactly, then why not include you in this project?”

“Just do your job.” Steve said and left

“He gonna go snooping around.” Tony said

“What?”

“I know my son. He’s gonna go snooping around till he finds something. You’ll see.”

\-----------

Steve was still annoyed with his dad, but he trusted his instinct.

He found the door he was looking for and found the weapons.

He felt his blood boil with anger.

Everything he’d done since he joined the army, he had done so that no weapons like these couldn’t be made. He crashed that plane, lost Bucky, lost Peggy and messed up his entire life so that the cube couldn’t harm anyone.

And now, people are once again using that damn cube to make weapons and threaten the lives of countless people. It didn’t matter that they thought they were doing it for good, the cube just wasn’t worth the risk.

He grabbed the weapon and headed to confront Fury.

\------------

“What’s phase 2.” Tony was asking Fury

Steve slammed the weapon on the table

“Phase 2 is shield uses the tesseract to build weapons. Sorry, the computer was working too slow for me.”

“Told ya,” Tony whispered to Bruce

“Did you know about this?” Bruce asked Natasha who had just entered with Thor

Soon everyone was arguing about and Fury blamed Thor for the weapons, which led to more arguments and shouting.

“Remind me how you made your fortune again Stark?”

“I’m sure if dad still sold weapons he’d be neck deep..”

“How is this about me?” Tony protested

“I’m sorry isn’t everything?” Steve shot back

“...Shield monitors everyone.” Natasha was saying

“Captain America is on the threat list?” Bruce asked incredulously

“Wait you’re on that list? Is it above or below angry bees” tony asked

“Dad, so help me god one more wisecrack-“

More argument

“We’re not a team. We’re a chemicals mixture, a ticking time bomb”

“Dr Banner you need to calm down”

“Why shouldn’t the guy let off some steam.” Tony said, putting a hand on Steve’s shoulder

“You know damn well why, back of.” Steve said , harshly shrugging off his hand

“I’m starting to want you to make me.”

“Oh yeah, big man in a suit of armour, take that off and what are you?” Steve challenged

“Genius, billionaire, playboy , philanthropist, and most importantly, you’re father so maybe watch your mouth while you talk to me.” Tony said

“My father? Where were you all these years then?” Steve asked angrily

“What do you mean? How was I supposed to know what happened?”

“I was fighting in a war while you spent you’re time drinking, and partying with girls.”

“Which part of ‘iron man’ and ‘saving people’ did you not get?”

“You made iron man to save yourself from that cave. And then to clean up the mess that your company made in the first place. Everything you ever did was to serve your own purpose.” Steve said pointing his finger at Tony’s chest

“What exactly are you trying to say here? That I don’t care about anyone? That I don’t care about _you?”_

“Well I know you don’t care about me. Never told anyone I was your son, hid me away like you were ashamed of me and as soon as that explosion happened, just moved on like I never existed.”

“Moved on? I spent months searching for you like a madman. You weren’t in this time to begin with, so I had to admit defeat. It was the hardest thing I had ever done.”tony yelled

“Then why did you give up. Why did you let me live in a time where people hated me for who I was. Where I had to fight a war that wasn’t mine. Why dad.” Steve asked, his voice cracking slightly

“If I had known, I would have moved heaven and earth to get you back. All that partying and girls, was just a lie. And don’t you _dare_ doubt that I care about you.”

“More excuses, Just like when I was a kid. You were always complaining that Howard was a bad father but you’re just. Like . HIM!” Steve yelled

Tony froze, staring at Steve with shock

Steve realised what he had said and immediately regretted his words. He opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by Dr. Banner

Steve listened in horror as Bruce admitted to being suicidal.

But what scared him the most was the look of understanding in Tony’s eyes. Like someone who tried it himself.

They got an energy signature match. The tesseract!

Tony tried leaving, Steve grabbed him

“Not alone.”

“Don’t stop me.”

“Put on the suit.”

“I can still ground you kid.”

“Put on the suit.”

The explosion hit the side of the ship.

Tony and Steve were knocked to a side. Immediately, Tony reached out for his son, who did the same.

‘ _Never again_.’ They both thought

“Put on the suit.”

“Yup.”

Steve and Tony scrambles to their feet and Steve reached to steady his father as they hurried out of the room.

“Engine three is down”

“Stark do you copy that?”

“I’m on it.”

They walked towards the suit.

“Meet me at engine three.”

Steve nodded and left

Tony opened the panel with his suit in it.

To say Steve’s words had hurt would be an understatement.

Being a good father had been Tony’s one and only proudest achievement. Now it looked like he had screwed that up as well. He knew that Steve hadn’t actually meant that stuff, the sceptre had obviously been doing something.

But what hurt the most was seeing all the pain his child was carrying around with no one to notice. He promised himself that he would do everything he could to help Steve.

For that they had to live until tomorrow. So he had to get to work.

Tony flew to the engine and found Steve waiting for him.

“Dad! dad I’m here.”

Tony still couldn’t get over how strange it felt to have Steve call him ‘dad’ after missing it for six years

“Good. I need you to get to that engine control panel and tell me which relays are in overload position.”

Steve nodded and leaped the distance across the broken floor to the control panel

“What does it look like in there?”

“It seems to run on some form of electricity.”

“Well you’re not wrong. Seriously though kid you can build any car from the scratch since you were 11 but a circuit board gets the best if you.”

“Just tell me what to do dad.”

Tony told Steve his plan

“Speak English!”

He suppressed the urge to groan

“See that red lever over there, stand by it and wait for my word.”

Steve nodded and must’ve leaped again.

“ _Stark we’re losing altitude_.” Fury's voice came over the comms

“Yeah I noticed”

Tony went inside the engine and started to push the thrusters. Once they gained momentum, he would need Steve to reverse the polarity long enough for him to get out.

The speed increased, he needed to get out

“Cap, the lever.”

“I need a minute.”

“Lever. Now.”

The speed increased and Tony was crushed under the thrusters. The suit was failing

“Help!”

Steve must’ve finally hit the lever cause tony got out and immediately crashed into the soldier that was about to shoot his son.

He watched Steve sigh in relief as he laid on the ground, exhausted.

They were safe for now.

But the damage had been high.

“ _Agent Coulson is down_.” Fury’s voice came through the comms

Tony felt his stomach sink as grief poured over him.

He hadn’t known Phil that much, but he had become a friend over the years he had known him.

And now he was dead. He’d tried taking on Loki, a literal god, all by himself.

The idiot!

“We found these in his jacket. I guess he never got around to getting you to sign them.” Fury was saying and he dumped some blood stained captain America trading cards onto the table in front of Steve.

Tony wanted strangle Fury for trying to guilt trip his son. Steve has enough on his plate without adding Phils murder to the list.

“There was an idea.” Fury started “stark knows this. It’s called the Avengers initiative...”

“Phil coulson died still believing in that idea.” Fury said and Tony had had enough. He stood up and left the room

He saw Steve enter the place from his periphery

“Was he married?”

“No there was a cellist, I think.”

“I’m sorry. He seemed like a good man.” Steve said genuinely

“He was an idiot.”

“Why for believing?”

“For taking on Loki alone.”

“Sometimes there isn’t a way out dad. Is this your first time losing a soldier ?” Steve asked. The impassive way Steve talked about death made Tony want to scream. What had happened to his sweet, innocent boy? He fought in the war, of course he had seen a lot of death and destruction. How much had he lost to make him sound so hardened and cold?

“We are not soldiers.” Tony said vehemently

Steve was silent for a moment

“I didn’t mean any of that. You know that right?” Steve asked, his eyes pleading for forgiveness

“I know piccolo.”

“We need to stop Loki.”

“He made it personal.” Tony said and started contemplating Loki’s idea when the realisation hit him

“You know where he’s going.”Steve stated

“I know where he’s going.” Tony agreed

Steve seemed to have understood as well

“Stark tower.” They both said together

This was gonna be one hell of a battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will have the battle of New York and shawarma time!!!


	5. Shoot to thrill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle of New York and team bonding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter, finally finished. I hope you guys like it

Steve rushed to Natasha to tell her Loki’s plan

“Can you fly?”

“I can” the newly cured Barton said

Steve looked at Natasha for conformation and she nodded. That was good enough for him.

“You got a suit? Then suit up.” Steve commanded

“ _And do hurry up will you_?” Tony said through the comm

“Of course. Don’t do anything stupid till we get there.”

“ _You know me. When have I ever done anything stupid_?.” Tony asked

————————-

Tony then proceeded to do every stupid thing he could think of, including provoking a god.

Steve had sounded like he was two seconds away from a heart attack

“ _Are your thrusters even working_?” Steve asked

“They’ll hold up. Is Barton coming with you?”

 _“Yeah! We’re taking a jet right now. We’ll be there as fast as we can_.”

Tony arrived at Stark tower to find selvig on the roof powering the reactor

“Sir, I've turned off the arc reactor but the device is already self-sustaining. “ Jarvis’ voice came

“Shut it down, Dr Selvig." Tony said

“It's too late! She can't stop now. She wants to show us something! A new universe.” Dr selvig said

“Okay.”

“ _Dad do not engage Loki_!”

“Sir mark 7 is not ready for deployment.” Jarvis said

Honestly, a little faith here?

Naturally, he did the exact opposite of what Steve said. His son had to get it from somewhere right?

Tony walked into the tower, his broken armour removed as he walked.

“Please tell me you're going to appeal to my humanity” Loki sneered

“Actually, I'm planning to threaten you.” Tony said

“ _Great. Just great. You’re threatening a god_.” Steve said sarcastically

“You should have left your armour on for that.”Loki said

 _“I actually agree with him. The maniac trying to kill us is making more sense than you are_.”

“Yeah. It's seen a bit of mileage, and you've got the glow stick of destiny. Would you like a drink?” Tony asked, subtly putting on the bracelet for mark 7

“ _Offering him a drink? Really? Is that supposed to be stalling_?”

Maybe if they’d come faster he wouldn’t have to do this

“Stalling me won't change anything. “ Loki said

Steve made a noise that sounded like ‘told ya’

“No, no. Threatening. No drink? Are you sure? I'm having one.” Tony poured himself a glass

“ _I really hope you’re not actually drinking. We kinda need you sober right now. Wait you already planned something didn’t you_?”

Jumping head first into something is Steve’s style not his.

“The Chitauri are coming. Nothing will change that. What have I to fear?” Loki asked

“The Avengers. That's what we call ourselves. We're sort of like a team. "Earth's mightiest heroes"-type thing.”

“ _You make us sound better than we actually are_.”

Tony wished his son would shut up

“I’ve met them.” Loki said mockingly

“Yeah. It takes us a while to get any traction, I'll give you that one. But let's do a head count, here. Your brother, the demigod, a super soldier, a living legend who kind of lives up to the legend.”

“ _Aaw dad, that was kinda sweet_.”

“A man with breathtaking anger-management issues, a couple of master assassins, and you, big fella, you've managed to piss off every single one of them.”

“Damn right he did.”

“That was the plan.”

“ _That son of a-“_

“Not a great plan, cause when they come, and they will come, they’ll come for you.”

“I have an army.”

“We have a hulk.” Tony countered

“ _Actually we don’t”_

“I thought the beast had wandered off.”

Steve should really shut up

“You're missing the point. There is no throne. There is no version of this where you come out on top. Maybe your army comes and maybe it's too much for us, but it's all on you. Because if we can't protect the Earth, you can be damn well sure we'll avenge it. “

_“Wow. That was beautiful, I’m tearing up here. But I really hope we don’t have to avenge anything.”_

Oh come on! Tony had been having a moment here

What’s taking them so long anyway

“How will your friends have time for me when they are so busy fighting you?” Loki said, jabbing the sceptre to his reactor. It doesn’t do anything “This usually works.”

Loki starts backing him into the glass wall

“Well, performance issues, it's not uncommon. One out of five... Jarvis, anytime now.”

“ _Dad what’s happening- did you just crash out of a window?_ ”

“Deploy! Deploy!” The suit recognised the bracelet and attached to him a few feet above a couple of civilians on the ground.

He shot back up and pointed a repulsor at Loki

“And there's one other person you pissed off. His name was Phil.”

“ _Oh thank god you’re alright.”_

Just then, the reactor let out a beam of energy into the sky and a portal opened, strange creatures shooting out of it

“Right. Army.”

And tony did what any non stupid person would do and flew right towards the oncoming swarm of alien-creature things.

He blasted as many as he could, more kept coming.

Thor was keeping Loki occupied for now so that’s good. Only, their whole fight was looking a lot like something from lion king.

“ _Stark, we're on your three, headed northeast_.” Natasha voice came through

“What? Did you stop for drive-through? Swing up Park. I'm going to lay them out for you.”

The jet flew in, and Loki blasted it out of the sky within minutes.

Just great

“That was very useful. Great flying.”

“ _Oh give us a break._ ” Steve said

Tony watched them get out and survey the whole destruction

Just then, a gigantic worm alien flew out of the portal

“ _Dad you seeing this?”_

“Seeing, still working on believing. Where’s Banner? Has he shown up yet?”

“ _Banner?”_

“Just keep me posted”

Tony flew around wormzilla, trying to find chinks in its armour.

He watched Steve give orders to some policemen who didn’t seem to listen at first. Then, Steve busted some really cool moves on a couple of aliens and without a word, the cops followed his orders.

Just when they thought all hope was lost, Bruce arrived.

“Well that’s my secret captain, I’m always angry.”

He smashed his fist into the giant worm, crushing it on impact.

Go Hulk!!

More aliens swarmed in

“Call it captain.” Tony said. As weird as it felt to take orders from his son, there’s no one Tony trusted more.

“All right, listen up. Until we can close that portal, our priority is containment. Barton, I want you on that roof. Eyes on everything. Call out patterns and strays. Dad, you got the perimeter. Anything gets more than three blocks out, you turn it back or you turn it to ash.” Steve commanded, quickly slipping into captain mode

Tony could see now why all those men followed Steve into battle. The confidence and conviction with which he spoke gave hope to him.

“Can you give me a lift?” Clint asked

“Right. Clench up Legolas.”

“Thor, you got to try and bottleneck that portal. Slow them down. You got the lightning. Light the bastards up.” He turned to Natasha “You and me, we stay here on the ground. We keep the fighting here. And Hulk...” Steve turned towards the hulk “Smash.”

Hulk carried out Steve’s order with great enthusiasm.

Soon, the six of them were fighting the alien army, as a team.

And they actually got along.

Tony flew around blasting the aliens while Hulk went all King Kong on the buildings.

Thor’s lightning bolts were frying every alien in vicinity while Barton expertly shot any strays.

Natasha and Steve were a formidable pair on the ground.

At one point, Tony flew down and pointed his repulsors at Steve who immediately lifted his shield, using the impact to blast a group of aliens. They were working in perfect sync

The six of them stood together back to back, facing the army. Six people defending an entire city against an army of aliens

They were a team.

But would they be enough?

Tony saw Natasha jump on one of the alien ship things and he understood her plan, though it was a very crazy plan.

He tried to keep the aliens off her trail.

He heard Barton tell Steve something about civilians in a bank, which Steve immediately rushed to.

Natasha got onto the roof while Loki and hulk were in the tower, probably wrecking it. Great. Just great!

He was trying to take on one of the worm things

“You ever heard the tale of Jonah”

Man he was gonna regret this.

He never wanted to know what the inside of that thing looked like ever again

“Steve? You alright?” He asked when he noticed his son pausing to catch his breath

“ _Yeah. Yeah I’m fine_.”

The bank behind him had blown up but the civilians were safe. Steve must’ve been blasted outside the window.

 _“I’m fine dad._ ” Steve said and went into battle mode again

Tony was worried. They couldn’t keep going like this.

 _“Stark I got a nuke headed straight for New York. Stark do you copy_?”

Oh give him a break already. What the hell were those people thinking?

“Yeah I copy. How long?”

“ _Three minutes tops._ ”

Fantastic!!

“ _I can close the portal. Does anyone copy? I can close it._ ” Natasha’s said

“ _Do it_.” Steve yelled

“No. Wait” tony said. He knew exactly where to put that nuke

 _“Dad these things are still coming_.”

“I got a nuke coming in.It's gonna blow in less than a minute. And I know just where to put it.”

Steve sucked in a sharp breathe

“ _Dad you know it’s a one way trip._ ”

“Jarvis save the rest for the trip.”

“Shall I contact miss Potts sir.”

“Might as well.”

As tony flew upwards, the connection failed.

“ _Dad_?” Steve’s voice cracked on the word

“It’s okay. I love you piccolo.”

Steve’s breathe hitched in a sob

 _“I never meant what I said. You’re the be-st, dad. I lo_ “

The comm stopped working.

Tony was truly alone now

He let the nuke fly towards the alien ship and watched as it exploded in the sky.

If he was dying, at least he had a good view.

Everything turned black and he was falling, falling , falling.....

——————-

“Dad? Dad!”

No answer.

‘Please come back. Please.’

He couldn’t lose him. Not again.

They just found each other

He was gone

“Close it.” Steve said, steeling himself

“ _Steve.._ ”

“Close it!” He said harshly, except his voice cracked on the last word

The portal was closing and their still was no sign of his dad

A part of steve was still too shocked to accept the truth.

He looked away, two seconds away from breaking apart completely.

He was tired of losing people he loved.

“Captain, look!” Thor said

Tony fell through the portal seconds before it could close.

He’s back!

But he wasn’t slowing down!

Panic settled in Steve once again as Thor prepared to catch him.

The hulk slammed into a building and caught tony, laying him down on the ground with surprising gentleness.

Steve rushes to his father, pushing aside Thor in his haste to get to him

“He’s not breathing.” Steve said desperately, hands touching the arc reactor, which wasn’t glowing like it should.

The hulk roared and tony jerked awake with a yelp

“Please tell me no one kissed me.”

Steve laughed

“We won dad.”

“right, yay! Hurray. Good job, guys. Let's just not come in tomorrow. Let's just take a day. Have you ever tried shawarma? There's a shawarma joint about two blocks from here. I don't know what it is, but I want to try it”

“We’re not done yet.”

“And then shawarma after.”

————-

When Loki gained consciousness, he found himself surrounded by the avengers.

Clint got the right to point an arrow at his face because cmon, the guy deserved it after everything Loki put him through.

Thor wanted to leave for Asgard immediately but Tony convinced him, an the rest of the avengers to stay the night.

“But we need a cell strong enough to contain Loki.”Thor pointed out

“I have one at my Malibu mansion. When Fury asked me for help building the first one, I built a second one back home, just in case.”

“Why did you think you would need to contain a god in your house?”Natasha asked

“I’m just prepared.”

“Shawarma time! I’m starving.” Clint said

The others nodded in agreement

So they all found the little shawarma restaurant and amidst the chaos and panic, they ordered their food.

The server had looked like he would get a heart attack.

—————

“Steve? You’re not hungry?” Natasha asked

“Nah! I don’t think my stomach has adjusted to food yet.”

Tony knew about that of course.

“At least try drinking something. We’ll begin with something small for food. Maybe some broth or crackers? Applesauce?” Tony said

Steve nodded, his chin resting in his hand. He looked tired.

“I saw that bank explosion. Did you get hit?”

“Hmm. Just a little scratch, it’ll heal.”

Tony raised an eyebrow but let the Subject drop

“Oh my god! Look at stark going into daddy mode.” Clint said

The others chuckled while tony rolled his eyes

“Hey Steve? You gotta tell us more about this time travel thing.” Bruce asked, looking curious

“Yeah. I mean what was it like, living in the 40s?”

Steve brows furrowed and he bit back a smile

“It wasn’t all that bad to be honest. I mean some things were good. I met some great people, friends. In fact, one of my friends from that time, Cathy, she’s still alive. I met her a couple of days ago.” Steve said with a wistful smile

“But the war was bad of course. And people were not so accepting of me. I’m pretty sure a lot of people didn’t even know what transgender meant.”

A few confused looks went around the table. Tony knew Steve did this on purpose, coming out to his teammates like that.

The confusion passed quickly and no one said another word about it, simply nodding at Steve to continue.

Steve smiled to himself, happy at their reaction, knowing it didn’t matter to them.

“The worst part of course, aside from not having my family with me, was living without technology. I mean, think about it! Three whole years without phones or tv or internet!!”

Their captain was talking so open and friendly with them for the first time. Everyone exchanged smiles at his carefree demeanour. Everyone except Tony, who, if anything looked positively livid.

“Three years?” He asked, struggling to keep his tone even

Steve stiffened at his words

“Crap” he murmured under his breath

“Tony what’s wrong?” Natasha asked

“When were you gonna mention this?” Tony asked in the same tone,

Steve put up his hands in front of him defensively

“I can explain.”

“Explain!” Tony shouted, then breathed hard, trying to keep his voice down

“What could you possibly say that makes this any better?” He asked through gritted teeth

“Well...I had to, okay.”

“Oh my god! You- you know what- gah!” Tony exclaimed, hanging his head down and massaging his temples with his fingers

“Seriously tony will you tell us what’s-“

Tony cut him off

“He was 13 when he disappeared.” He said harshly

Immediately, everyone’s expression changed(except for Thor who looked as confused as ever)

“You’re 16?” Natasha asked Steve incredulously

“Well, the thing is I was born in 93 so technically, I’m 19.” Steve said, cringing at everyone’s disapproving expressions

“No you don’t. You’re not going there. That’s not going to work.”

“But-“ Steve started

“Wait, if you’re 16 then you should’ve been 15 at the time of the experiment.” Bruce said

Tony looked at Steve with an expression that clearly said ‘are you out of your _mind?_ ’

He was simply too angry to actually say it.

Steve groaned and dramatically banged his head against the table

“Guys! Please stop.” He said, his voice sounding muffled

“I do not understand? What’s wrong?” Thor asked. He was ignored

“Oh my god! We were led into battle by a teenager. A literal baby was giving us orders. And we _followed_!”client exclaimed, wide eyed

“Okay now that’s an exaggeration.” Steve said, glaring at Clint

“And guys, seriously, it’s over now so just drop it.”

“Oh no it’s not. This is far from over kid. You’re grounded.” Tony said firmly

“What?! You can’t be serious.” Steve protested

“I am serious. Dead serious. You’re not going on another mission until- until...”

“I was 200 the first time my father let me ride into battle with him.” Thor supplied.

“See! That’s perfect. No more missions till you’re 200.”

Steve gave him an exasperated look.

“Ok fine. 18.” Tony conceded, knowing full well that it would be a miracle if Steve actually lasted that long.

“Fine. I could use a break anyway.” Steve said

“We’re not done. You’re going to school.”

“Ha ha . Very funny.” Steve deadpanned

“I’m not joking.” Tony said, with a raised brow

“No way! Are you crazy? No.”

“You still haven’t graduated. Just finish senior year.” Tony said

“Oh come on! You really think I can sit through hours of boring lectures and homework after all the things that I’ve done?”

“Whine all you want kid, I’m not changing my mind.”

Steve groaned and buried his face in his hands

“Guys! It’s time for our sleepover at Stark's.” Clint said after a moment of silence

“Sleepover? You mean an or-“ Thor started

“No! Absolutely not.” Bruce said quickly, now that they had an actual child with them “It means we’re gonna spend the night at Tony’s house, probably watching movies and painting each other’s toes or something.”

“Oh. That is very interesting.” Thor said, grinning

Steve burst out laughing, quickly followed by Clint and Natasha.

“C'mon, let’s get get going. Chop chop.” Tony said, after he paid the bill

———————

Tony called Pepper while they were on the jet

After she spent ten minutes yelling and hyperventilating she finally calmed down

“I love you Tony.” She said

“I know pep. You too. Hey, we’re all going to the mansion right now-“

“We as in you and Steve right?”

“Um..no. I mean all the avengers.”

Pepper sighed

“...and Loki.”

Cue another five minutes of her questioning his sanity.

He knew he was crazy, she didn’t have to tell him.

“I’ll be there by tomorrow. Try not to wreck anything else till I get there.” Pepper said

“Yeah. Sure”

They’d had to put a literal muzzle on Loki, not because he could mind control someone with his words or something dangerous like that, but because Loki was a little shit and wouldn’t stop mockingand Thor and captain America.

They arrived at the mansion and tony watched as Steve looked around him in wonder

“Never thought I’d be here again.” He whispered to tony

When they entered the house, everyone scattered around, exploring the place.

“Nice to be back.” Natasha said, smirking at the now repaired wall that tony and Rhodey has destroyed two years ago.

Speaking of which

“You remember Rhodey right?” Tony asked

“Uncle Rhodey? Of course I do. Is he here?” Steve asked.

Tony didn’t understand how he’d missed it. Now that he knew, he could clearly see how young Steve was.

Natasha seemed to be having similar thoughts because she was staring at Steve like she never met him before.

“DUM-E!” Steve said with a delighted whoop, pointing to the little bot that had been wandered into the living room “you kept him?” Steve asked, patting the bot. Over the years, Tony had learned enough of the robot language to know the whirring noises DUM-E was making meant he was happy. He recognised Steve.

“Of course I kept him. Although he’s a menace most of the time.” Tony said

“Hey! You’ll hurt his feelings.” Steve said, patting DUM-E reassuringly

“I missed to you too buddy.” He told it

“You know he saved my life one time.” Tony said quietly

Steve gave him a small smile

“He’s your helping hand after all.”

“Hey, you wanna see your old room?” Tony asked

“It’s still here? “

“Duh.”

“Steve’s old room huh? Can we see? I want to know what captain America was like as a child. Although he still is one.” Clint added as an afterthought

“C'mon” tony said , leading them all to the old room. This was the first time anyone aside from Tony was going in there for 6 years.

“All your stuff still in here. You’re Walkman”tony rolled his eyes when he said that, “All your Nirvana tapes, posters, clothes, even your toys.”

Tony opened the door, letting everyone in.

Wait.

“All my toys? Even the-“

“Are those Barbies?” Bruce asked

Oh no

“Yeah Steve was crazy about them. His hot wheels and barbie dolls were his most prized possessions.” Tony said, smiling fondly at the memory

Steve on the other hand was bracing himself for the teasing that was inevitable

“No way!.” Clint exclaimed. There it was, Steve thought. “Is that a limited edition barbie with hearing aids?”

Huh?

“Yup. I knew you’d like that.” Tony said.

Before he could process what’s happening, everyone has taken a barbie they like and were actually playing with them.

Clint, with Tony’s help, had made a miniature bow and a set of arrows for the doll and was attempting to shoot things with them.

Natasha has swapped a catsuit off of one barbie for a red haired one and began to intricately braid its hair. For someone who looked so dangerous and intimidating on the battlefield, she looked so cute and innocent doing that.

Bruce and Tony were speculating the mobility of the dolls and how they could be improved. They had broken two dolls doing that, much Steve’s irritation.

Thor, who had never seen these dolls before, was absolutely fascinated by them

“This one looks like Loki whenever he felt like a she.” He proclaimed, holding up a dark haired, green eyed doll

Steve had read about Loki in the mythology being gender fluid, but it was still a bit of a surprise to see him confirm it. Thor obviously loved his brother a lot, too bad Loki didn’t see that.

It was a rather strange scene indeed, the group of people who had saved the world only a few hours ago were now sitting on the floor of a child’s bedroom playing with dolls.

That’s how Rhodey found them an hour later.

“Seriously Tony? Those pants with that shirt? What’s wrong with your fashion sense man?” He said, pointing to the doll in Tony’s hands

“Hey Uncle Rhodey.”

Without a word, Rhodey was hugging Steve.

“Really squirt? Did ya have to grow so tall?”

The two of them spent the evening catching up.

—————-

After dinner, everyone was too tired to do anything but sleep.

Except, Steve couldn’t fall asleep.

So he roamed the halls, each room holding a different memory.

He passed by the lab to see the lights still on.

“Dad?” Steve called, stepping into the lab

“Steve? You’re not asleep yet.”

“Couldn’t sleep. What about you?”

“Me neither.”

Tony was leaning against the table with something in his hands

“How are those still here?” Steve asked, pointing at the wedding bands

Tony stared at them for a moment

“The minute I woke up after the explosion, these rings had been the first thing to make me doubt that something was wrong. Every time I looked at them, I could hear her words. Always reminding me to remember you.”

“But the vibranium? Howard used up all he had to make my shield. These shouldn’t even exist in This time.”

“And yet they do. I think-I think they were some kind of an anchor. One that grounded you to this timeline.” Tony explained

“A relic from the past.” Steve said

Tony nodded. He sighed and put the rings back in the box he stored them in. It had been two years since he had taken them off.

“I miss her.” Steve admitted

“I know baby. I miss her too. But it gets better, I promise.” Tony said

Steve reached out to his father and hugged him tight.

It was incredible, after everything he’d seen and been through, he could still find comfort in his fathers arms.

Steve buried his face in Tony’s neck as the tears poured down.

“I never thought I’d be home again dad.”

“You’re hear now. You’re with me and I’m never letting you go again.”

After a moment, Steve pulled back and wiped his face

“Hey dad? Were you really serious about the school thing?”

Tony sighed

“Honestly, that was just so I could make sure you didn’t sneak off to missions or something. I thought maybe if you had something to distract you, it would be easier to ignore all the dangerous stuff for a while. But if you don’t wanna go, I won’t force you.” Tony said

“You’re okay with me being a high school dropout?”

“Well, I could home school you. And you could write your SATs and get your GED.”

“Actually, I think I’ll go to school.” Steve said

“You sure?”

“Yeah. I want to do something normal for a while.” Steve said

Tony smiled, then his expression became thoughtful

“Do you wanna talk about it?” He asked Steve

“About what?”

“Everything. Since you landed in the 40s. The war. You said people couldn’t accept you for simply being yourself. Is because of-“

“I got beat up a couple of times because of it but it wasn’t that bad. Don't ask me about the war just now dad I- I can’t okay? Not yet.”

“I’ll leave it for now, but you gotta talk to someone, sometime Steve. It’ll help you, I promise.” Tony pleaded

“I will. I swear dad I’ll tell you everything just, not now. It’s too soon.”

Tony kissed Steve’s forehead

“Do you wanna help me with the car?” He said pointing at a 1967 Ferrari 275 Spider

“Hell yeah.”

“Language. You’re still grounded remember?”

Steve chuckled

“Pass me that wrench.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next one is gonna be and epilogue. The fic is almost aiming to an end. I’m planning Iron man 3 and winter soldier Au’s so I’m. It quite done with this universe just yet.


	6. Hey jude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Epilogue

It had been three months since the battle of New York. After that day in Malibu, everyone had scattered. Natasha and Clint were going on missions again, Thor had returned to Asgard, Bruce was in the newly restored Stark tower working with the R&D division, while Tony and Steve stayed in Malibu.

Everyone came back for Steve’s 17th birthday in July, even Thor, who was now roaming the earth with Jane Foster. Everyone had found it really hard to sympathise with Thor when he told them Loki was dead.

Now the avengers regularly met whenever they had time, having dinners and planning movie nights.

They had become a family of sorts.

And all of the five older avengers were fiercely protective of Steve, who pretended to be smothered by their attention, but secretly enjoyed it.

Steve was still grounded. Tony wouldn’t allow him to go on any missions and threatened to lock away the shield if he tried.

Steve agreed to his conditions and stayed home. That lasted all of three weeks before Steve snuck out. Tony only found out when it was aired live, Captain America chasing down thieves who had been stealing residual alien tech to make weapons.

Tony actually locked the shield after that.

And the next time, Steve went without any weapons or shield, using bare hands.

Tony was glad Steve was finally starting school.

Steve, on the other hand, had been dreading this day for three months now.

But he was also kinda excited.

He woke up early that day, and went for a run, trying to clear his mind. He was doing that a lot these days.

After he came back, he checked his bag and supplies for the millionth time, making sure he had everything he needed.

He could do this

————

“You okay kiddo?” Tony asked Steve

He was looking at the school building with a nauseated expression.

Seriously, the boy fought in world war 2 and faced a crazy god and his army of aliens, but school scared him?

Although tony could guess his apprehension. Lately Steve had been having panic attack’s anytime something triggered him.

They had talked, like Steve promised, and tony learned a lot about Steve’s time in the war.

He also learned a lot about a certain Bucky Barnes.

Steve wouldn’t tell him, but the way he talked about Bucky was the same way tony talked about Sarah after she died.

He hated that his son had to go through something like that.

“You don’t have to do this.” Tony said gently

Steve’s expression hardened and he took in a deep breath

“No. But I want to.”

“Fine. Just don’t befriend anyone from the Hammer clan again.”

“Dad! That was first grade. Get over it already.”

“Never.”

“You’re impossible.”

“If anything happens, call me okay. And if you want to leave, one call and Happy will be here to pick you up.”

“I’ll be fine dad. See ya.” He said and started walking towards the school, his hands clenched tightly around the straps of his backpack.

Tony watched Steve until he disappeared inside, the knot of worry in his stomach only growing.

He’ll be okay

Right?

———————

Steve entered the office room to get his schedule. It felt so weird to be back.

At least he wasn’t going to his old school in New York where someone could’ve recognised him.

“Hi, you must be the new kid. I’m Mark. Mark Robins, the student body president. I was asked to show you around.” A tall, dark haired boy beside Steve said

“Um hi. I’m Steve, Steve Grant.”

Natasha has smacked her forehead when she heard Steve’s fake name.

“Welcome to our school Ste- wait! Is that nirvana?” He asked, getting a better look of Steve’s t shirt under his flannel.

“Yeah. I love that band. You like them too.”

“Like? I’m obsessed with them. I’ve had a crush on Kurt Cobain since I was 6.” Mark said, eyes bright with excitement.

“Me too.” Steve said, laughing at Marks expression

“Well, guess who just became my new best friend?” Mark said and lead Steve around the school.

Steve was happy to find out he shared almost half his classes with Mark.

Steve was surprised to find out he actually enjoyed school

In lunch, Mark introduced Steve to the rest of his friends.

“I hope Mark didn’t drool all over you when he saw that t-shirt.” Austin, Marks boyfriend asked, earning a glare from Mark

“Or he spent the entire time fan boying over kurt when he was supposed to be giving Steve a tour.” Leslie, their friend said

“Yeah, we should probably give new boy here another tour since our president is pathetic at his job.” Nora, Marks twin pointed

Steve chuckled “Actually, I was so thrilled to find another nirvana fan. It’s been a while since I met someone with good taste in music.” He said

“See! That’s what I’m talking about. Give me five Steve.”

“You better not be stealing my boyfriend new boy.” Austin mock threatened Steve

“There’s no competition here.” Steve said

By the end of the day, Steve made four new friends....and a couple of enemies.

The last hour they had was gym and no matter how hard he tried to hold back, Steve was simply too good at everything.

The football coach wanted him on the team, without any tryouts, calling him a better player than their captain.

The captain was not so happy about that.

“Listen blondie, if you really think you’re better than me why don’t you prove it on the field tomorrow?” Landon Stone said, trying to tower over him but failing by an inch

Wait...Stone?

Tiberius Stone’s son.

His dad was going to be so thrilled.

Just great!

“Don’t worry about him. Dude you were awesome today.” Austin said, giving him a fist bump. Austin was on the team and was one of their star players.

All things considered, not a bad first day.

————————-

Steve was adjusting well to school and Tony couldn’t be happier.

The day after the battle, pepper and Steve had met each other for the first time.

It had been rather awkward at first, but they both seemed to like each other.

Now, they had become best friends. Their favourite thing to do? Constantly annoy Tony about not eating and sleeping or working too long in the lab.

Humph!

“How was your first day?” Pepper asked Steve excitedly when he came back

“It was surprisingly good.” Steve answered, smiling

Tony and Pepper had been waiting in the living room. Steve plopped down on an armchair, dropping his bag on the floor.

“Is that all? Did you make friends?” Pepper asked

“Hopefully not with my rivals.” Tony said

Steve rolled his eyes

“I did make a few friends, they’re pretty cool. This one boy, Mark, he totally freaked when he saw my t shirt.”

“What about classes?”

Tony listened to then talk, feeling like he had the first time Steve went to school.

He was happy his son was enjoying himself, but he never could get rid of the worry.

Even before the serum, Steve had proven he was capable of taking care of himself. Now he definitely wasn’t defenceless. But tony still felt like high school may not be the best thing for Steve right now.

Sure it was his idea, but only because he wanted to keep Steve busy so he wouldn’t run off to fight every threat he could find.

He was lost in thought when a throw pillow smacked him in the face

He turned to glare at pepper who was giggling with Steve

“Dinner time. You coming?” She asked

“Who cooked?” Tony asked

“Dominos.”

“Then okay.” He said, ignoring Steve’s annoyed huff

The last time Steve tried to cook, he almost burned down half the kitchen.

“It was one time.” Steve protested

“You were making toast!”

They bickered throughout dinner, pepper almost choked laughing so hard at them.

It was these moments of normalcy, as rare as they were these days, that Tony cherished the most.

—————-

Tony was dealing with his own nightmares right now. He kept dreaming of that portal and getting stuck there.

But his priority was helping Steve and he couldn’t really think about himself just then.

Steve noticed though. He asked about the constant working and obsessively building new armour.

Tony shrugged him off, always directing the conversation towards Steve and his day and school.

Steve was not impressed.

But he didn’t push tony either.

“You can talk to me too you now. You helped me, let me help you too.” Steve said one day while they were working on a car

Tony pretended not to hear and Steve left it.

“That stone kid giving you trouble?” He asked instead

Steve hesitated for a minute before speaking again

“He saw my top scars in the locker room today. By noon, everyone found out.” The serum made sure Steve didn’t require surgery but it still left scars, different from surgical ones, but still noticeable.

Tony gritted his teeth.

“I hope he was punished somehow.”

“Nope. I got detention for punching him, even though he was goading me. I’m also off the team.”

Tony was griping the wrench in his hand so hard, his knuckles had turned white.

“Do you want me to come talk to them?”

“No way! That’ll just make everything so much worse.”

“You can always stop going.”

“No...I like school. And yeah some people are dicks but my friends are great. They didn’t even care about this. And most of my teachers are pretty cool too.”

“Maybe I can talk to Ty Stone. The guy can kiss any business deal goodbye if he doesn’t keep his son in line.

“Stone’s still trying to make deals with you?”

“Who wouldn’t?The guy may have tried to make my life miserable at MIT but outside, he knows I’m better than him.”

Steve hmmed in response

“Why are you off the team though? Because you punched that dickwad?”

“Language dad.” Steve said smirking.

Tony raised an eyebrow

“I don’t know why everyone thinks you’re some sort of goody two shoes but I raised you kid, and you’ve been swearing like a sailor since you were ten. You get that from your mom by the way.”

“You taught me most of those words. Although I’ll admit, mom came up with the more creative ones.”

“You’re avoiding my question.”

Steve’s smile disappeared and he sighed

“The coach said it was a boys team and he didn’t- didn’t want a girl in it. And then he found my birth certificate from my transcripts and started dead naming me. He wouldn’t let me use the boys locker and tried to stop me from using the bathroom. The principle neither agrees with him nor does she stop him. It sucks.”

Tony cursed, annoyed at himself. Fury had helped him alter the year on Steve’s birth certificate but they didn’t alter his name. He was so stupid.

Without a word, Tony stood up. By the time he was done, that coach will be pissing his pants. No one talks to his child like that and lives.

“Dad please. I can fight my own battles . I don’t want you to fight them for me.”Steve sounded tired, but determined

Tony sighed harshly, and sat down.

Steve had risked his life to save the world over and over again and this is how they repay him?

“You know the funny part?The coach actually used Captain America to preach traditional conservative values and was telling me how disappointed he would be with me.I thought I would explode with laughter.” He said

That did not make tony feel any better.

“That coach should be fired.” He said viciously

“They’ll ask me to be on the team again, eventually. Austin told me he was kicked off last year for being gay but they needed better players so they took him back again. The hypocrites.”

“That school has the worst luck in football. They’ll be toast without you.”

“Did you ever wish I was normal?that I wasn’t born this way?”He asked abruptly

“What? Why would you think that?”

“It’s just, it would be so much easier if I was normal. And I can’t help but think that maybe you...”

Steve trailed off but tony had a feeling he knew what was on Steve mind

“You think I’m ashamed of you. That I never told anyone about you because of this?”

Steve looked away, unable to meet his fathers eyes

As hurt as tony was, it crushed him more to think Steve ever had to feel unloved.

“Listen to me Steve, since the day Sarah told me she was pregnant I’ve loved you. And I will continue doing so no matter what, because that’s what a parent is supposed to do. I’ve done many things in my life, achieved so much. But the thing that I’m proud of the most is you Steve, it’s always you. Never doubt that.”

Steve didn’t tell anyone when he was upset or tired or in pain. He usually bottled it up and put on a brave face. But for tony though, he told him everything. Tony was so glad Steve trusted him with his emotions

“I love you piccolo.”

Steve smiled, and then suddenly grimaced, clutching his stomach.

“What’s wrong?” Tony asked

“Cramps. It’s a- it’s that time of the month.”

“Oh. Right. Maybe you should go lie down for a while, I’ll bring some painkillers to your room.”

“You know those pills don’t work on me right?”

“Fine. How about chocolate?”

“Sure. Sounds much better.”

Steve had told Tony all about this particular problem of his. Tony hated that Steve had to go through that alone, but he was grateful to find out he had someone to help him.

The serum had not completely erased the whole thing but his cycle was now irregular, coming once in three months or so and lasting barely four days.

Steve was still miserable at that time, his cramps being extremely painful and no painkillers or any other medication to stop them worked.

Tony tried doing everything he could to make his son feel as comfortable as possible.

————-

One day, six months after Steve woke up, JARVIS alerted Tony of his son in distress.

“Master Steve is by the swimming pool sir.”

Oh no

Tony went to the large indoor pool and found Steve standing in swimming shorts by the edge of the pool.

He was breathing hard and staring at the water like it might swallow him.

When Steve was a kid, he loved swimming. Despite his asthma he would spend hours in the pool or at the beach whenever tony brought him to Malibu.

Now Steve looked like the thought of swimming would scare him to death.

Tony knew that the plane crashing stunt would’ve had to bring upon a lot of trauma for the boy. His own experience with the nuke only made him more empathetic.

Tony quietly changed into his own shorts. Steve had noticed him of course, but didn’t move from where he was standing.

Tony stood beside Steve and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Remember when you were six? The first time I took you swimming?”

“Yeah and I had an attack and almost drowned. Why would you wanna remind me of that?”

“You almost drowned, but you didn’t right?”

Steve turned to face him

“No. You caught me, and when I got too scared to try again, you promised you wouldn’t let go, wouldn’t let me drown.”

“Exactly. That promise still holds Steve.” Tony extended his hand to him

Steve looked uncertainly at the water and back at Tony’s face. When he saw his fathers gentle and reassuring smile, Steve found himself relaxing a bit.

His father would never let him drown.

He took his hand.

The two of them slowly stepped into the pool, Steve’s breathing went faster when the cold water touched his toes.

Tony subtly sent a command to heat the pool.

“It’s okay. You’re doing great son. You wanna try making a lap around the pool?”

“Give me a minute.” Steve said through gritted teeth, clutching Tony’s fore arms, afraid he would leave

“It’s okay. Take your own time. Baby steps kid, you don’t have to do everything at once.”

“I wanna get out.” Steve admitted finally. He looked embarrassed “I can try again another time.”

“Ok. Come on then.”

They both got out of the pool and tony hugged his son

“I’m so proud of you honey. I know how hard that must’ve been. Just remember you have nothing to prove to anyone.”

“What if we go on a mission in the future? What if there’s water and I can’t do anything to help or save anyone because I’m too scared? How can I lead the team like this?”

Steve’s apprehension became clear to Tony

“Firstly, it a very long time before you can even think about going to missions. Secondly, I know you Steve. If the need ever arises, you’ll put everyone else above yourself. You’ll do the right thing. And thirdly, it’s okay to be scared. Even heroes have weaknesses and that’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Steve still didn’t look convinced, frowning at the pool

“We’ll work through this, together. I’m right here piccolo.”

Steve nodded and smiled, “thanks dad.”

They would get through this

————-

“ _Who are you? Stay away from my son.” Sarah screamed_

_“We don’t have time. You’re son is needed somewhere else” the tall man said_

_“What the hell are you saying?” A blast sounded from outside as the hydra agents tried to blow up the impenetrable walls_

_“I can’t tell you. But I can show you” the man pressed his finger to Sarah’s forehead and her glazed over_

_Barely a few seconds had passed before he took away his hand._

_“That’s....impossible.” Sarah said breathlessly_

_“The future is in great peril. Certain events must be set in motion to save the future.”_

_“You have one of them, don’t you?” Sarah asked_

_“Yes. And one was lost in the past.”the man said_

_“This will change so many things.”_

_“It’s for the best.”_

_Sarah took a deep breath and looked at Steve’s frantic face. He couldn’t hear most of their conversation._

_Then she turned to the man, her expression determined_

_“You have to protect him. Promise me you’ll take him somewhere safe.”_

_“I will take him to where he is meant to be. He has a great destiny ahead. His life cannot end here.”_

_The man took out a green stone from his locket, and a blinding green light flashed across the room._

Steve woke up, drenched in cold .

He had to warn everyone.

———-

“Why did he call for a meeting now?”Bruce asked

“I don’t know. He woke up in the middle of the night, sounded very frantic. Won’t tell me what happened though.” Tony said, looking worried

The rest of the avengers were in the tower, having come as fast as they could when Steve sent out a distress call

“Where is he now?” Thor asked

“He’s at shield, said he had to research something important. I had to fly us to New York in the suit because he wouldn’t wait a minute”

Just then, Steve entered the room, still dressed in pajamas

“Thanks for coming as soon as I called.”

“Of course we came. Now tell us what happened.” Clint asked

“I-I had a dream last night. About the man that sent me back in time.”

Everyone looked shocked for a moment before they all launched into questions

“I thought you didn’t remember what happened”

“Did he say something to you?”

“Is he the threat”

“Do you have to go back in time again?”

“I would blast him out if this planet if he tried that again.” Tony said vehemently to the last question

“If you let me talk then I’ll tell you guys what happened.” Steve said loudly, using his captain voice

Everyone immediately fell silent.

A room full of a adults and a literal god, following the command of a 17 year old, it would’ve been hilarious but right then, Steve had more important stuff to worry about.

“Last night, I had a dream that helped me remember everything that happened that day. I just realised that the man used a green stone to send me back in time. It resembles the power of the tesseract.”

They knew that already. So why was this so important now.

“There are more of these things. That green stone and tesseract aren’t the only one.”

“Why are they important right now?” Natasha asked

“He is right. There are more.” Thor said “ I encountered something similar a few months ago. My lady Jane was infected by a substance known as aether...”

Thor explained everything that had happened after he went back to Asgard.

“They are called infinity stones.” He said “there are six of them, as far as I know.”

“Yes.” Steve said “ And we need to learn more about them. Something’s going to happen in the future, something bad. And it all comes back to these stones. Thor, the tesseract is safe in Asgard right? And the aether?”

“Both in safe locations.” Thor said

“The green stone is with that man. I tried searching for him on shield databases, going by what I remember of his face. I found nothing so far.”

“So these infinity stones, what’s going to happen if we don’t find out about them.” Tony asked

Steve closed his eyes, the scene he had seen just before he woke up still fresh in his mind.

A vast landscape...a terrible war...millions dead and the middle of it all, a tall , large silhouette with a gauntlet holding six stones, illuminated with power.

“I think, if someone manages to wield all six stones together they will have power over the entire universe. And I think someone is coming, someone that wants that power.”

—————-

The avengers departed with the promise that they would search for more information on the stones

“Loki must’ve known something about whoever it is that wants to wield the stones.” Thor said, looking forlorn “where else would he get the sceptre?”

“Do you think he was brainwashed as well?” Clint asked,

“It is possible. He seemed terrified of something, of someone.”

“I’ll ask Fury for all records of the tesseract. Howard Stark had studied it for a long time.” Natasha said

Nothing really happened after that. Everyone was still alert, searching for any information they could find.But things were quite and peaceful for the time being.

Tony and Steve finished the car they were working on.

Landon Stone has gotten drunk the day before their first match and as a result, couldn’t play well and the team lost. The coach had practically begged Steve to join the team again.

Steve didn’t make it easier for him.

“But it’s a boys team. You don’t think I’m a boy.”

“I do. I definitely do Step- Steve. I-I’m sorry if I offended you. Just do this for the school.”

Steve finally conceded

They won the next match.

Things were better for now.

————

Tony had been having trouble falling asleep again. Pepper was in DC for some meeting and wouldn’t be back for a few days.

He couldn’t sleep in that large bed alone, not with the nightmares plaguing his mind.

So he roamed the halls, too tired to work in the lab.

He paused when he passed Steve’s room and listened. Steve was whimpering and seemed to be calling out to someone in his sleep.

It sounded like...Bucky?

Tony opened the door and rushed to Steve’s side.

His son was tossing and turning, obviously in the middle of a nightmare. Tony was worried he would get a panic attack in his sleep. Tony knew how painful and hard they were.

“Hey...ssh. Steve it’s me, it’s dad. Wake up baby. It’s okay, you’re not there now. I’m right here. Wake up.” He murmured in Steve’s ear while he gently rubbed his hand

Steve woke up with a gasp

“Dad?” He asked, his voice cracking

“Yeah. It’s okay Steve.”

“Dad! Bucky...I- he’s-“

“I know honey.” Tony kissed Steve’s forehead and held him close.

It may have been seventy years to the the rest of the world, but to Steve, Bucky had died a day before he woke up.

The wounds were still too fresh

“We kissed. A day before he-“ Steve took a deep breath “we kissed but I never got to tell him. I never told him how much I loved him.”

Tony wasn’t sure what to say to that

“I should’ve caught him. He was right there. If I had tried a little harder, I could’ve saved him.”

“No Steve, you can’t do that to yourself. I know it seems like it but it’s not your fault. Blaming yourself like that won’t bring him back.”

“Peggy told me something like that. She said I had to award him the dignity of his sacrifice.” Steve said, in a rather impassive voice like he didn’t agree

Tony knew Peggy Carter, she was a smart and amazing woman

“She’s right you know.”

Steve huffed and looked away.

“I know it doesn’t seem like it’s possible but it gets better. It will be hard, but one of these days you’ll be able to move on. I did, and it was years before I could do it. But I’m happy now and you will be too.”

A few tears made their way down Steve’s face. Tony brushed them away with his thumb

“Can you stay with me?” Steve asked abruptly. He flushed red when he said that, obviously embarrassed

Tony smiled “of course piccolo. I don’t feel like sleeping alone anyway.”

Tony slipped into the bed and pulled the blanket over them

Steve curler I’m on himself and rested his head on Tony’s shoulder.

Tony felt a pang. The last time he had held his son like this, Steve had been 12. He was so tiny, Tony could wrap his body around his and hold him close, protect him from everything.

Now, Steve was bigger and stronger than him. He didn’t need tony to protect him.

Just then, Steve raised his hand and gently rested his fingers against the reactor, like he was taking comfort from it.

Tony smiled. So what if his son was stronger than him, Steve still found comfort and safety in his fathers arms. He was still Tony’s little boy.

Tony gently carded his fingers through Steve’s hair.

He knew the road ahead would be difficult.

They were always gonna have new threats to deal with. The world would always need the avengers.

People are still gonna judge Steve.And Tony. They will do everything they can to make their lives difficult.

And they had their own nightmares to deal with.

But in that moment, everything was fine

They were together, that’s all that mattered.

As Steve shifted slightly, unable to fall asleep, Tony did something he hadn’t done in a while.

He sang

“Hey Jude, don't make it bad

Take a sad song and make it better

Remember to let her into your heart

Then you can start to make it better

Hey Jude, don't be afraid

You were made to go out and get her

The minute you let her under your skin

Then you begin to make it better....”

**Author's Note:**

> i changed a lot of stuff in the Plot. basically what i think would've happened if cap hadn't stopped hydra and crashed that plane. the next chapter will show all the changes the time travel caused in the existing time, basically becoming canon compliant (to an extent)


End file.
